Endocrine Abstracts

The aim of this study was to define the occurrence of hypothyroidism and its impact on CHF progression. Four hundred and twenty-two consecutive outpatients (326 males, aged 65±12 years) with CHF in stable condition and conventional therapy were evaluated. Thyroid status was checked at least every 4 months. The progression of heart failure was defined as death, urgent heart transplantation, or hospitalisation due to worsening HF.<img src="/ea/0026/ima...

Introduction: Primary malignant thyroid teratoma is a rare neoplasm. Even rarer is the concomitance of the mentioned tumor and papillary thyroid cancer.Case report: We report a case of a 44-year old woman diagnosed with Hasimoto thyroiditis and multinodular, non-toxic goiter since 2004. The two larger, initially non palpable nodules were located in right thyroid lobe, 16 and 12 mm in diameter respectively. Under suppressive thyroxine therapy the diameter...

Pancreatic endocrine tumours (PETs) have a low proliferation index and this partially accounts for their lack of response to chemotherapy. The assessment of proliferation rates relies largely on the use of markers such as Ki67 in patients, and uptake of DNA nucleotide precursors such as tritiated thymidine or 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) in animals. Amongst these, BrdU is recognised to be the most reliable marker of cell proliferation as it allows the substitution of an endog...

D cells comprise 3–10% of the human endocrine pancreas and secrete somatostatin, which inhibits cell proliferation and hormone secretion. Pancreatic tumours secreting somatostatin are associated with the somatostatinoma syndrome, which is characterised by hyperglycaemia, cholethiasis, a low acid output and anaemia. We have examined for the presence of somatostatin secreting cells in pancreatic tumours from a multiple endocrine neoplastic type 1 (MEN1) knockout mouse model...

Enlarged vestibular aqueduct (EVA) is the most common malformation of inner ear associated with sensorineural hearing loss. It can either be found in nonsyndromic or in syndromic forms of hearing loss, such as Pendred syndrome (PS). In PS, sensorineural deafness is associated with thyroid abnormalities: goitre and iodine organification defect detected with perchlorate discharge test. Mutations in SLC26A4 (PDS) gene cause PS and can also be found in a proportion of patients pre...

In elderly subjects the mortality rate after hip fractures ranges from 18 to 33% within one year; among survivors, 40% did not return to the previous level of functional ability. The aim of this study was to evaluate the longitudinal changes of some markers of bone metabolism in relation to functional and nutritional status.Thirthy-seven subjects aged more 70y with a new vertebral or hip fracture were admitted to the study. Thirthy age-matched and not fr...

Introduction: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare but devastating malignancy. We performed a review to determine outcome in our patient cohort.Of 20 patients 14 were females, six males. Median overall survival was 27.5 months (range 1–168), nine being deceased. Mean age at presentation 52.3 years (range 18–71). The majority of cancers were large; 5% ≤5 cm, 40% 5–10 cm, 55 >10 cm. 25% had stage IV disease, 10% stage III, 55% ...

Background: Vitamin D deficiency plays a role in autoimmune diseases and risk of fractures. No data are available on vitamin D levels and vertebral fractures in autoimmune bullous skin diseases.Objectives: To assess vitamin D serum levels and vertebral fractures’ prevalence in patients with pemphigus vulgaris (PV) and bullous pemphigoid (BP), potentially deadly autoimmune bullous disorders.Methods: We studied 13 consecutive ac...

Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) are one of the most vulnerable categories of patients in terms of adverse outcomes of COVID-19 infection.Aim: To assess the features of laboratory and instrumental data in patients with COVID-19 and type 2 DM (unvaccinated) depending on the value of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) at the time of the onset of oxygen deficiency.Materials and methods: The study involved 78 patients with type 2 D...

The calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) is a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) that maintains systemic calcium homeostasis by detecting alterations in extracellular calcium, which it transduces into signalling changes, mainly via the Gq/11 pathway, leading to a decrease in PTH secretion. The importance of CaSR is highlighted by studies of patients that harbour germline CaSR mutations, which lead to a gain of receptor function in autosomal dominant...