Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: A teratoma is a rare type of tumor deriving from the germ layer cells (ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm), typically benign, more frequent in infants. Adult onset teratomas are most commonly gonadal cell tumors. Extra--gonadal teratomas generally affect the midline, most frequently anterior mediastinum, retroperitoneum, pineal and suprasellar area. Head and neck teratomas are an extremely rare entity and represent only 0.47–6% of all cases.<p class="abste...

Introduction: Bilateral adrenal hemorrhage (BAH) is a rare clinical condition (estimated incidence between 0.14% –1.8%, according to postmortem studies) and life-threatening due to the development of adrenal crisis, after the destruction of 90% of each adrenal gland. A mortality rate of 15% has been reported despite treatment, but it depends on the severity of the underlying condition, reaching 90% in cases of sepsis, or even higher if it is not diagnosed quickly enough....

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), anticancer therapy blocking specific molecules expressed in tumor microenvironment, are associated to several endocrine side effects. In particular, the use of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors is related to a higher incidence of thyroid dysfunction. The most frequent form of thyrotoxicosis is a destructive thyroiditis, which can evolve into hypothyroidism.Patient findings:We report the case of an 85 years-old patient,...

Introduction: Non-classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia (NCCAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency is one of the most frequent autosomal recessive diseases. Genetic analysis performed for genetic counselling revealed a miscorrelation with the clinical diagnosis in several patients at our centre.Aim: Confirm the genetic diagnosis of NCCAH in women attended for this condition.Materials and methods: Consecutive patients attended at o...

Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is defined by hypercalcemia and high PTH levels. In recent years a variant of PHPT has been described, namely normocalcemic PHPT (NPHPT), which is characterized by normal serum calcium and high PTH levels, in the absence of other causes of secondary hyperparathyroidism. The epidemiology of NPHPT is poorly understood. We performed a survey in the early fall in a small Southern Italian village, in which all adult residents (n=1811) wer...

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the utility of arterial calcium stimulation with hepatic venous sampling (ASVS) in the localization of tumors in patients with endogenous hyperinsulinism not detected with other methods.Patients and methods: We performed a retrospective study of 30 patients admitted to our hospital for hypoglycemia who underwent ASVS because the source of hyperinsulinism was not clearly identified by other imaging techniques...

Introduction: The presence of truncated variant of somatostatin receptors (SSTR) has been demonstrated in pituitary tumours. These variants seems act as dominant negative of SSTR and induce the resistance to SST analogue (SSTA) treatment. A variant of SSTR5, sst5TMD4, has been found to disrupt SST signalling in breast cancer cells. In present study, we assayed the expression of sst5TMD4 in two non-transformed epithelial prostate cell lines (EPC): EPN, derived from a normal sur...

Introduction: During a normal menstrual cycle, serum levels of luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol (E2), and progesterone (P4) can vary widely between cycles for the same woman, as well as between different women. Reliable reference values based on the local population are important for correct interpretation of laboratory results.Aims: To evaluate the discrepancy of the results on fertility hormones by two different t...

Reduced expression or activity of the thyroid hormone receptors (TRs) are common events in cancer, suggesting that these receptors could act as tumor suppressors. We have previously shown that TRβ expression in SK-hep1 hepatocarcinoma cells (SK-TRβ cells), reduces tumor growth and strikingly inhibits invasion, extravasation, and metastasis formation in nude mice. These effects could be related to a decreased expression in these cells of prometastatic genes, such as C...

Androgen deficiency in the aging male has become an actual topic due to the aging population and finding from different studies that shown a progressive decline of serum levels of age-related testosterone. These levels have been inversely related with markers of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease.The aim of this observational study was to investigate the relation of endogenous testosterone and other sex hormones with different components of me...