Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: SUB:Pituitary – Clinical (Generously supported by IPSEN)It is still unclear whether obesity in craniopharyngioma (CP) is caused by disorders in food regulation or by changes in mood or activity due to depression or sleepiness leading to a decrease in energy consumption. We compared CP to patients with non-functioning pituitary adenoma (NFPA) by using standardized questionnaires to clarify this question.Methods: We compared 31 ...

Objectives: Our aim was to assess health-related quality of life in patients with Cushing’s disease (CD) and patients with non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFPA).Methods: We assessed patients with CD and with NFPA treated at our outpatient units. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was assessed with the SF-36, a widely used generic measure of health status and the CushingQoL, a newly developed disease generated questionnaire to evaluate HRQoL ...

Objectives: It is known that patients with pituitary adenomas, especially acromegaly, frequently suffer from pain syndromes such as headache and arthralgia. Whether pain exists and to what extent in Cushing’s disease (CD), reflecting chronic cortisol excess, is not clear. We hypothesized that pain patterns should be also altered and investigated pain laterisation, clinical characteristics, phenotypes as well as underlying predictors.Methods: In a cr...

Acromegalic patients under treatment with Octreotide LAR (Oct), 10, 20 or 30 mg were switched to Lanreotide Autogel 120 mg (Lan) at different dose intervals: 56, 42 and 28 days respectively. Just before the fourth Lan injection, IGF-I values were measured and the dose interval for the final three injections adjusted accordingly: if IGF-I values were between 1 and 2 standard deviations (S.D.) above the age and sex related mean value, no change in dose-interval wa...

Objectives: Acromegaly is associated with elevated cardiovascular morbidity. Medical treatment of acromegaly does not only lead to a normalisation of the somatotroph axis, but can also negatively influence cardiovascular risk factors and comorbidities.Methods: In a cross-sectional study, we evaluated cardiovascular risk markers (glucose, HbA1c, triglycerides, cholesterol, HDL, LDL, lipoprotein a, homocystein, CRP) in relation to biochemical control and m...

Leptin and ghrelin are correlated to acute and chronic nutritional status. Elevated BMI and fat mass as well as food intake increase leptin levels whereas ghrelin levels are reduced. Ghrelin stimulates growth hormone (GH) secretion. The influence of GH on ghrelin is unclear. Since GH reduces fat mass and is dependent on nutritional status we performed this prospective cross sectional study in order to investigate any interaction between GH, ghrelin and leptin levels in active ...

Background: We recently have shown a close association of high concentrations of soluble alpha klotho (sαKL) to disease activity in acromegaly. Small pilot studies suggested that sαKL concentrations might be reduced in GH deficiency (GHD) and increase after recombinant human GH (rhGH) therapy. Our aim was to evaluate the potential of sαKL as a biomarker in GHD.Methods: We evaluated sαKL in comparison to the classical biomarkers GH, IG...

GH suppression during OGTT is the gold-standard test in diagnosis and monitoring of acromegaly. However, discrepancies between GH nadir and IGF-I have been described and have triggered search for factors modifying the extent of GH suppression. Cut-offs at 1.0 or 0.4 ng/ml are currently recommended with modern, highly sensitive GH assays. To establish assay specific GH nadir cutoffs for the 22kD GH specific IDS-iSYS assay, we examined 381 subjects (319 females, 62 males) with n...

Introduction: A monthly, long-acting formulation of pasireotide normalized or reduced mean urinary free cortisol (mUFC) in most patients with Cushing’s disease (CD) in a multicentre, double-blind, Phase III study. The effects of long-acting pasireotide on signs and symptoms of CD are reported here.Methods: Patients with persistent/recurrent (n=123) or de novo (non-surgical candidates; n=27) CD and mUFC≥1.5–5xULN...

Objective: Diagnosis of acromegaly is often delayed up to 10 years after disease onset despite obvious visual changes, bone and soft-tissue deformities. We hypothesized that a reduced sense of body perception in acromegaly, possibly mediated by psychiatric or cognitive alterations, might contribute to the delayed initiation of a diagnostic work-up.Design: Cross-sectional study.Methods: We investigated perceived body image ...