Endocrine Abstracts

Pituitary carcinomas are rare and represent a challenge in clinical practice. Most secondary tumour localizations are intracranial and spinal, followed by liver, cervical lymph node, bone and, rarely, lung. PC frequently exhibit resistance to most usual therapies and the mean survival time is usually <4 years once metastases have been identified. Ectopic ACTH Syndrome is, in up to 50% cases, caused by lung tumours including carcinoids or Small Cell Lung Carcinomas (SCLC). ...

Introduction: Thyroid papillary cancer is a solid organ malignancy that can be cured mostly by surgical and radioactive iodine(RAI) therapy. Metastatic disease state and radioactive iodine resistance have led to new treatment searches. In recent years, sorafenib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has been used as a first-line treatment in thyroid papillary cancers that cannot be cured by surgery or radioactive iodine treatment. In addition, the use of thermal ablation and transarte...

The parallel increase in the amount of environmental contaminants and in the prevalence of some human diseases has led to a growing interest in understanding how these compounds, so-called endocrine disruptors, may affect human health. In this scenario, the concept that obesity is the result of the interplay of genetic and lifestyle factors has been changing due to the growing evidence that environmental contaminants might alter endocrine function.Organo...

Glucocorticoid (GC) excess is characterized by increased adiposity, skeletal myopathy and insulin resistance. Despite increasing use of GCs as therapeutic agents, the precise molecular mechanisms that underpin GC-induced insulin resistance are unknown. Within skeletal muscle, 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1) converts cortisone (11-dehydrocorticosterone in rodents) to the active GC, cortisol (corticosterone in rodents) and thus amplifies local GC act...

Objective: Variability in growth hormone (GH) responsiveness is evident in adult hypopituitary patients receiving recombinant GH (rhGH). Doses vary up to 4-fold for unexplained reasons. Deletion of exon 3 in the GH receptor (d3-GHR) has been linked to an increased response to GH treatment in children, although data are conflicting. We investigated the role of the d3-GHR polymorphism in determining GH responsiveness in adult GH deficient patients.Methods:...

Background: Pregnancy alters the natural history of autoimmune thyroid disorders. The incidence rate of positive thyroid antibodies (T-abs +) in asymptomatic women during pregnancy has been reported to be between 6 and 19.6%.Aim: To determine the prevalence of thyroid antibodies (T-abs) in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM).Subjects & Method: In 408 women, at the time of diagnose of GDM, TSH, free thyroxine, free tri-iodothyro...

Introduction: Bartter syndrome represents a set of closely related autosomal recessive renal tubular disorders characterised by hypokalemia, hypochloremia, metabolic alkalosis and hyperreninemia with normal blood pressure. The underlying abnormality results in excessive urinary losses of sodium, chloride and potassium. Bartter syndrome is classified into 3 main clinical variants: neonatal Bartter syndrome, classic syndrome and Gitelman syndrome.Case repo...

The Nuclear Receptor Subfamily 5A member, Steroidogenic Factor 1 (SF-1, Ad4BP, NR5A1), is critical for steroidogenesis, stress responses, sexual differentiation and body weight regulation in mice. Patients with rare mutations in SF-1 have confirmed its role in male sexual differentiation and adrenal response to physiological stress in humans. In contrast, Liver Receptor Homologue 1 (LRH-1, FTF, CPF, NR5A2) is involved in endoderm development, bile acid and lipid metabolism and...

Background and methodology: There are few data on changes in thyroxine requirement in the long-term follow-up of hypothyroid patients. We carried out a retrospective analysis to evaluate the long-term changes in thyroxine dose and its relationship with age, gender, thyroxine dose at registration and aetiology of hypothyroidism.Results: We identified 5,029 patients from our hospital based thyroid register with a minimum of 4 years follow-up (88% female, 7...

Background and methodology: In the long-term surveillance of treated hypothyroid patients, annual surveillance (with thyroid function testing) is widely recommended. This is largely based on consensus, as there is limited evidence to support this practice. Currently around 20,000 patients are registered in our hospital based thyroid register and the majority are on 18 monthly follow-up. We carried out a retrospective analysis to see if there is evidence to support increased fr...