Endocrine Abstracts

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a clinical entity characterized by the infiltration of fat into the liver associated with hepatic inflammation. The etiology is unknown, however its most frequently observed in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM 2), obesity or insulin resistance. DM 2 is an independent risk factor for the progression of NASH. Usually there are no symptoms, so it is not possible to estimate its prevalence. The treatment focuses on the control of a...

Introduction: Asparaginase is a component of chemotherapy regimens used to treat paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). One of its well-known side effects is hyperglycaemia which is probably related to hypoinsulinemia. Its incidence rises significantly when associated with corticotherapy. We present two cases of diabetes related to asparaginase and corticoid administration.Case 1: Eleven-year-old girl diagnosed with an ALL. Before treatment she ...

Introduction: Thyroid storm is a rare medical emergency with high mortality, which usually results from acute exacerbation of hyperthyroidism. Amiodarone is a highly used class III antiarrhythmic drug and amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis is an infrequent effect of this medication, whose treatment may be difficult.Case study: A 20-year old male with congenital cardiomyopathy (Fallot tetralogy and Ebstein anomaly), chronically medicated with amiodarone 20...

Introduction: Radioiodine treatment (RAIT) is an effective definitive treatment for Graves’ Disease (GD) and Toxic Nodular Goiter (TNG). The aim of this study was to analyze demographic and clinical factors affecting the outcome of RAIT in patients with hyperthyroidism.Methods: Retrospective review of patients treated with RAIT for hyperthyroidism. A fixed dose of 10 mCi was administered to patients with GD and 15 mCi to patients with TNG. Treatment...

Long-term diabetes is associated with accelerated ageing of the brain as evidence by impairment of cognitive function as well as motor performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of voluntary daily exercise and environmental enrichment on spatial memory and learning as well as motor coordination and learning, in diabetic mice. Briefly, BALB/C mice (20–25 g) received 55 mg/kg streptozotocin i.p. daily for 5 days. Diabetes was confirmed by measurement ...

Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) therapy is a potential treatment option in idiopathic infertile men with normal FSH levels. In fact, a recent Cochrane meta-analysis showed that FSH treatment of men affected by idiopathic oligozoospermia significantly improves pregnancy rate. Hyaluronic acid (HA) binding capacity of spermatozoa is considered a marker of functional competency, consequently the evaluation of the percentage of HA bound spermatozoa in the ejaculate can serve as ...

Introduction: Radioiodine (RAI) is a safe and effective treatment used to treat benign thyroid disease. A review of patients who received RAI in Malta between 2010 and 2018 was carried out to determine their outcome.Methods: Data collection included patient demographics, indication for RAI, amount of RAI doses received, use of antithyroid drugs pre RAI and thyroid function tests (TFTs) at 3, 6 and 12 months post RAI. Cure was defined as euthyroidism or h...

A 61 year-old woman presented with a two year history of facial hirsutism and frontal balding. She did not report voice change or acne. Menarche was at age 14 with regular menses until a hysterectomy (with ovarian preservation) for menorrhagia aged 29. She had a past medical history of T2DM and gastric bypass surgery. She was not on androgenic medication. Examination revealed clinical hyperandrogenism with androgenic alopecia and hirsutism (FG score 20) but no cliteromegaly. T...

Oestradiol-17β regulates diverse tissues and cells, both within and outside the reproductive system including human cancer cells. Currently used ERs agonists or antagonists are synthetic compounds prepared by structure modifications. Alternatively, peptide mimics of steroids would allow preparation of biased combinatorial libraries of chemical and biological origin, from which estrogenic peptides with tissue selective profiles can be selected. The phage-display peptide li...

Recently, we demonstrated for adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) promising antitumoural effects for LEDP-M (etoposide, liposomal doxorubicin, liposomal cisplatin, mitotane) a novel liposomal variant of the classical EDP-M protocol (etoposide, doxorubicin, cisplatin, mitotane). However, clinical translation of novel therapeutic regimens remains challenging due to high tumor heterogeneity. Thus, to obtain preclinical results with more clinically predictive power we investigated for ...