Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Endogenous Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is rare with an estimated yearly incidence of 1–3 patients/million. CS describes a group of diseases that have in common an excess secretion of glucocorticoids which results in a characteristic clinical phenotype. Severe courses of Cushing’s syndrome are characterized by a break-down of protein catabolism translating into clinical consequences including muscle weakness. While remission of CS is achievable by surgica...

Introduction: Primary aldosteronism (PA) occurs due to an excess production of aldosterone in the adrenal glands, resulting in low renin levels and hypertension. Familial hyperaldosteronism is considered to be a relatively rare disorder, with only a small number of genes having been implicated so far. The aim of the present study is to identify the molecular cause of disease in a PA family, as well as examining the mechanisms in an in vitro setting.<p class="abste...

Background: Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is a chronic disorder characterized by endogenous cortisol excess resulting in long-term metabolic and cardiovascular consequences. The identification of metabolic alterations related to hypercortisolism could be beneficial in tailoring treatments of co-morbidities. Our aim was to characterize the metabolic alterations of patients with hypercortisolism by targeted plasma metabolomic profiling.Methods: Subjects (<e...

Background: Heterozygous activating somatic mutations in the catalytic subunit α (Cα) of Protein Kinase A (PKA) underlie 30–40% of cortisol producing adrenocortical adenomas (CPA). The activity of the catalytic subunits α,β,γ is controlled by the regulatory subunits (Iα,Iβ, IIα, IIβ). Previous reports found uncommonly reduced levels of RIIβ in CPA compared to other adrenocortical tumors.Aim: Investig...

Primary aldosteronism (PA) describes the most frequent cause of secondary arterial hypertension. Aldosterone itself represents a BP-independent cardiovascular risk factor associated with increased rates of morbidity and mortality. Recently a worsening of lipid metabolism after treatment has been described.Objective: Our aim was to analyse changes in lipid parameters according to treatment outcome in PA patients. Data of 215 consecutive PA patients with u...

Primary aldosteronism caused by aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) or bilateral adrenal hyperplasia is the most prevalent cause of secondary hypertension. Somatic mutations of KCNJ5, ATP1A1, CACNA1D and ATP2B3 have been shown to be involved in the formation of APA. We studied the immunoexpressions of CYP11B2 and HSD3B2, the rate-limiting enzyme for aldosterone production and the prevalent isoform of β-HSD found in APA respectively, and...

Background: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is a secondary form of arterial hypertension that – in case of unilateral disease – can be cured by surgery. Multiple studies have shown that PA patients are at higher risk to suffer from cardiovascular events and to develop metabolic diseases. Two thirds of patients with PA suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). A bi-directional, pathophysiological interplay between OSA and PA has been proposed, with focus on overnight ro...

Context: Recent studies showed a high prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms in patients with primary hyperaldosteronism (PA). A cross-sectional analysis suggested only minor improvement following adrenalectomy (ADX) and mineralocorticoidreceptor antagonist (MRA) therapy.Objective: Our aim was to determine the course of anxiety and depression in untreated patients.Design: We investigated 15 patients with PA at time of diagno...

Introduction: The role of surgery for recurrent ACC is not well defined. Therefore, we used the German ACC Registry to evaluate treatment modalities after first recurrence in patients amenable to surgery.Methods: Patients with recurrence after radical resection and follow-up data were included. Patients with extensive metastasized disease (>2 tumoral organs, peritoneal carcinomatosis) were excluded. Progression-free and overall survival (PFS/OS) were...

Subject: Adrenal tumours (AT) are often detected incidentally and represent a variety of differential diagnoses with variable therapeutic consequences. We have recently developed [123I]Iodometomidate ([123I]IMTO), that specifically binds to adrenal CYP11B enzymes as a SPECT tracer for adrenal scintigraphy. This radiotracer is now evaluated in patients with adrenal tumours in an ongoing clinical trial. The study was approved by the ethical committee and pa...