Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Patients with Cushing’s Syndrome (CS) suffer from a variety of neuropsychiatric and cognitive problems. Following remission, some, but not all of these symptoms resolve. Recent cross-sectional studies in patients with CS show persistent structural and functional brain abnormalities. However, longitudinal studies using magnetic resonance imaging, and a detailed neurocognitive assessment, performed before and after treatment, are not available.<p class="abs...

Background: Muscle weakness persists in patients with acromegaly (ACRO) even long-term after disease control. Mechanisms determining this sustained impairment are not known. We hypothesized that alteration of muscle architecture, due to intramuscular fatty infiltration, is associated with muscle dysfunction in these patients.Patients and Methods: Thirty-seven acromegalic patients [21 females and 16 males, mean (± s.d.)age, 53 ± 9 years...

Introduction: Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is associated with increased mortality and morbidities. Hypercortisolism is also present in chronic mood disorders (CMD) and stress, where telomere length (TL) has been found to be shorter than in matched controls. Since hypercortisolism is present in CS and CMD, we hypothesized that telomere shortening could also be present in CS. The aim of this study was to investigate TL in CS patients compared to matched controls.<p class="ab...

The European Registry on Cushing’s syndrome (ERCUSYN) is designed to collect prospective and follow-up data at EU level on patients with Cushing’s syndrome (CS). Baseline data on 481 CS patients (390 females, 91 males; mean age (±S.D.): 44±14 years) collected from 36 centres in 23 countries. This cohort included new patients since 2008 and retrospective cases since 2005. Patients were divided into four major etiologic groups: pituitary-depend...

Introduction: Somavert is a GH receptor blocker, which inhibits hepatic production of IGF1. While it has been approved for the treatment of acromegaly since 2003 there are few data regarding its effects in everyday clinical practice.Methods/design: ACROSTUDY is an open-label, international, prospective, non-interventional, post-marketing surveillance study monitoring the long-term safety and efficacy of Somavert.Results: As of Dece...

Introduction: Patients with Cushing’s syndrome might present a variety of brain alterations. There is however little evidence from MRI studies demonstrating atrophy of either frontal or medial temporal brain regions.Aims: To study cortical alterations (decreased cortical thickness) on MRI in patients with Cushing’s syndrome (CS), as compared to controls (C), and long-standing major depressive disorder (MDD).Material and m...

Background: There is significant interest in how the use of different treatment regimens (e.g. surgery, medical therapy) impacts the clinical course of Acromegaly. This study has been designed to better understand clinical decision making in the context of various treatment options.Methods: OASIS is an international, observational study in recently diagnosed acromegalic patients. Ethical committee approval was obtained where applicable. Observations incl...

Chronic exposure to hypercortisolism has a significant impact on patient’s health and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL), as demonstrated with generic questionnaires. Objective: Develop and validate a disease-generated questionnaire to evaluate HRQoL in patients with Cushing’s syndrome-CS- (Cushing QoL). Methods: After a literature review, interviews with expert endocrinologists and 10 patients identified HRQoL domains and clinical aspects of the disease; an anal...

Introduction: Disruption of the hypothalamic/pituitary axes may lead to hypopituitarism. Anterior pituitary deficiencies (APD) and arginine-vasopressin deficiency (AVP-D) are well established and are treated with hormone replacement. Over the last decade, preliminary studies support the presence of an oxytocin (OXT)-deficient state that might be clinically relevant in patients with hypopituitarism and hypothalamic damage (HHD). Therefore, identifying a provocative test to diag...

Context: There is no data on mortality of acromegaly diagnosed in the elderly. Objective: To compare clinical characteristics, GH-related comorbidities, therapeutic approaches and mortality of patients diagnosed before or after 2010 and to assess overall mortality compared with the general Spanish population. Setting: Spanish tertiary care centers.Design, Patients, and Methods: Retrospective evaluation of 118...