Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Thyroid incidentaloma are asymptomatic thyroid nodules that are discovered on an imaging study performed to evaluate other structures. Clinically unrecognized thyroid nodules are common and can be found in up to 50–60% of patients at autopsy.1 Increased use of imaging modalities of better quality in the modern era has resulted in an increased detection of incidental thyroid nodules. The prevalence rate is 67% with ultrasonography (US) imaging, 15% w...

Background: Patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), a neuroendocrine tumour derived from the parafollicular C-cells, often present with metastasized disease. Survival strongly correlates with stage of disease at diagnosis, illustrating the need for early diagnosis. Calcitonin (CT), a well-established tumour marker for MTC, is limited by a high rate of false positives in the screening phase. Promising new markers for MTC are procalcitonin (PCT) and progastrin releasin...

Background: Pituitary adenomas are the most prevalent tumours in the sellar region and can either be functioning, with autonomous pituitary hormone secretion, or non-functioning. Clinically evident adenomas occur in 1 in 1,100 in the general population. Pituitary adenomas have traditionally been subdivided into microadenomas (<10 mm) or macroadenomas (≥ 10 mm), with macroadenomas comprising 48% of clinically relevant adenomas. Non-functioning pituita...

Background: Transgender people often use gender-affirming hormone therapy to obtain physical characteristics that comply with their experienced gender. Transgender women use estradiol, usually with anti-androgens. Transgender men use testosterone. It has been reported that gender-affirming hormone therapy is associated with increased risk of acute cardiovascular events, however, this data constitutes largely of low quality evidence. We aimed to investigate the long-term incide...

Background: Patients with long-term remission of Cushing’s disease (CD) demonstrate residual psychological complaints. At present, it is not known how previous exposure to hypercortisolism affects psychological functioning in the long-term. In foregoing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies, abnormalities of brain structure and resting-state connectivity were demonstrated in patients with long-term remission of CD. However, no data are available on functional alteratio...

Context and objective: Fatigue and excessive sleepiness have been reported after treatment of nonfunctioning pituitary macroadenomas (NFMA). Because these complaints may be caused by disturbed nocturnal sleep, we evaluated objective sleep characteristics in patients treated for NFMA.Design: Controlled cross-sectional study.Subjects and methods: We studied 17 patients (8 women, mean age 54 years), in remission of NFMA during long-te...

Obesity is one of the leading causes of preventable death in the Western world, and its prevalence is dramatically increasing. Although obesity is primarily a metabolic disease, immunological aberrations also significantly contribute to obesity-related morbidity. The well-established state of chronic low-grade inflammation is considered to be crucial in the development of complications such as diabetes and atherosclerosis. Moreover, obesity is associated with increased suscept...

Background: Altered signaling of hormones regulating appetite and metabolism is often observed in individuals with obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) and related diseases, potentially resulting in increased hunger signaling and metabolic dysfunctions. Previous research indicates that such disturbances may be induced by weight gain itself, but also by other factors such as glucocorticoid excess (e.g. due to stress). However, knowledge regarding the associations between h...

Background: Obesity (BMI ≤ 30 kg/m2) is a chronic and relapsing disease, associated with numerous co-morbidities. Lifestyle intervention is the cornerstone of treatment of obesity, and is considered effective when weight loss of ≤ 5% is achieved. Here, we describe changes in physiological, psychological and behavioral health outcomes in response to a multidisciplinary combined lifestyle intervention (CLI).MethodsIn this longitudinal study we evaluated 97...

Background: Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a complex rare genetic disorder associated with hypothalamic dysfunction, pituitary hormone deficiencies, hyperphagia and (morbid) obesity. PWS is caused by loss of expression of paternally expressed genes on chromosome 15q11.2-q13. The most common genetic mechanisms leading to PWS are paternal deletion (DEL) and maternal uniparental disomy (mUPD). DELs can be subdivided in type 1 and (smaller) type 2 deletions (DEL-1, DEL-2). Most re...