Endocrine Abstracts

This study presents epidemiological data of 1512 Italian acromegalic patients who had been diagnosed from 1980 to 2002 and followed-up for more than 10 years, retrospectively collected by 24 tertiary referral centers. Data on co-morbidities and mortality were compared to those of the general Italian population obtained by the Italian National Institute of Statistic. At diagnosis median age of patients (41% M, 59% F) was 46 years, GH (mean±S.D.) 31±37 m...

Long acting somatostatin analogs (SSTa) induce both GH/IGF-I reduction and pituitary tumor volume shrinkage in the majority of acromegalic patients. It is not known if SSTa might also definitively cure the acromegalic disease in at least some patients. Aim of the present study was to evaluate this possibility in acromegalic patients very well responsive to chronic treatment. Thirteen acromegalic patients (4M&9F), 5 newly diagnosed and 8 previously operated but none irradia...

We previously demonstrated that acromegalic patients with normal IGF-I levels after surgery also met the current criteria for cure (i.e. postglucose GH nadir <1 μg/l) after long term monitoring. Since some Authors recently proposed to even lower the present GH nadir cut off value, the aim of this study was to confirm its adequacy to define long lasting disease remission. A group of 24 acromegalic patients (9 M&15 F, age 54.2±9.6 yrs) normal IGF-I levels and p...

Despite the increasing evidence on the relevance of the actin binding protein filamin A (FLNA) in determining an efficient intracellular response to somatostatin analogs (SSA) in pituitary tumors, there is a gap in the knowledge on the mechanisms regulating FLNA itself. FLNA is phosphorylated by PKA on Ser2152 located in a FLNA region crucial for SST2 or partner proteins binding. Although cAMP/PKA pathway plays a crucial role in GH-secreting tumors pathogenesis, the...

Currently, the multi-ligand somatostatin (SS) analogue pasireotide (SOM230) is the only pituitary-targeted drug used to treat patients with Cushing’s disease. SOM230 displays the highest affinity to somatostatin receptor type 5 (SSTR5) and compared to octreotide resulted more effective in reducing ACTH release. Despite its anti-secretory role, SOM230 has been associated with tumor shrinkage in patients subjected to long term treatment, although to date the key factors inv...

Background: The treatment of choice in patients with Cushing Disease (CD) is pituitary surgery (PS). A successful PS is generally followed by adrenal insufficiency (AI). Although the remission rate after PS may reach 96.6% of cases, approximately 1/3 of cured patients experience the recurrence of the disease during lifetime. The aim of this study was to analyze the duration of AI in relation with the recurrence of CD.Materials and methods: We performed a...

ObjectiveSeveral studies showed that patients discontinuing denosumab (Dmab) may experience bone loss and incident vertebral fractures (VFx) due to a rebound bone turnover increase, suggesting the need of anti-resorptive (i.e. bisphosphonate BPs) therapy to mitigate this occurrence. However, the morphometric VFx (morphoVFx) incidence after Dmab discontinuation is unknown and scarce data are available about the BPs effect on BMD changes and Fx risk in thi...

IntroductionLangherans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disease due to a neoplastic proliferation of Langerhans-type cells. Hypothalamic-pituitary (HP) involvement may occur in 20–40% of the patients, presenting with diabetes insipidus (DI) and/or anterior pituitary dysfunction. Typically, such abnormalities are permanent and unresponsive to systemic treatment of LCH. We report the case of a young woman with pulmonary and HP localizations, and sig...

Introduction: The effects of testosterone on coagulation have not yet been clarified. In particular, it is still controversial whether male hypogonadism, or testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), may slightly increase the risk of venous thromboembolism, in particular during the first months of therapy. This study aimed to assess the hemostatic balance in hypogonadal men before and after short-term TRT, compared to healthy controls.Methods: Thrombin gene...

Since the first description of inactivating PTH/PTHrP signaling disorders (iPPSDs, historically named pseudohypoparathyroidism (PHP)) a remarkable clinical variability was observed, especially in clinical presentation, which seems to be age-dependent. The main clinical features, including PTH resistance, brachydactyly and short stature, develop during mid and late childhood, whilst minor clinical features such as a round face, rapid weight gain and subclinical hypothyroidism a...