Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Soluble alpha klotho (sαKL) is a circulating protein that has been linked to the growth hormone (GH) axis. We previously showed its association to disease activity in patients with acromegaly, with considerable robustness towards biological confounders. However, there is scarce data in literature regarding the analytical performance of the assay, and pre-analytical stability of sαKL in blood samples. Objective: We aimed to evaluate ...

Background: Although the prognosis inGuillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is generally good, the protracted and sometimes incomplete recovery is a heavy burden for patients. Animal studies suggest that treatment with growth hormone (GH) could stimulate myelin repair and thus accelerate functional recovery in acute polyneuropathy. We report on the first use of GH in GBS.Objective: To monitor safety and tolerability as well as to evaluate the effect of off-l...

Background: Hypogonadism is frequent in men with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21OHD). It has recently been demonstrated that testicular adrenal rest tumors (TART) are a source of 11-oxygenated androgens that might impair testicular function, in addition to their local compressive effects. Data on long-term course of testicular function in men with 21OHD and the role of potential influential factors such as presence of TART and 11-oxyge...

We previously have shown in a cohort of 236 non-fasted women that before and after a short high intensity exercise protocol (HIP) till exhaustion serum concentrations of 20 and 22 kD growth hormone (hGH) are highly correlated (P<0.0001). Although the GH response to exercise exhibited huge inter-individual differences, the 20 kD/22 kD-GH-ratio remained unchanged (9.6% vs 11.1%, P=0.313). A subgroup of the women was also studied under fasted conditions in a...

Recent data suggest that not only caloric density but also macronutrient composition of diets can influence metabolism, body composition and the development of metabolic disorders. A limitation of previous studies was that effects were studied predominantly in males. To better understand potential differences in the response of males and females to manipulations of dietary macronutrients, our studies were undertaken in both sexes. As a dietary model, we used regular chow diet ...

Background: Adult GH deficiency (GHD) is diagnosed by provocative testing of GH secretion. To improve diagnostic accuracy of GHRH plus arginine (GARG) testing, we evaluated the influence of age, BMI, and sex. Furthermore, we aimed to established normative data for an automatic immunoassay specifically measuring 22kD human GH.Methods: Eighty-seven patients with hypothalamic-pituitary disease and 200 healthy controls were enrolled. Controls were prospectiv...

Introduction: Transsphenoidal surgery is the gold standard in Cushing’s disease and recurrence is a major risk. We wondered which impact remission and recurrence might have on control rates of hypercortisolism and conducted a systematic analysis of our cohort of patients with Cushing’s syndrome after undergoing surgical therapy.Methods: We analysed the course of the disease in 74 patients with ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome (63 Cushing&...

Introduction: Acromegaly is a chronic disease that affects morphology and organ functions. These changes lead to clinically relevant comorbidities. Untreated acromegaly reduces life expectancy by 10 years, mostly due to cardiovascular events, malignancies and respiratory disorders. We present the results of a series of 109 acromegalic patients at a single institution.Methods: Lung function tests were performed under standardized conditions in patients wi...

The cardiovascular outcome of targeted treatment of primary aldosteronism (PA) has not been prospectively studied in large cohorts. Using the data of the prospective German Conn’s registry we evaluated the effect of adrenalectomy (ADX) vs mineralocorticoid-receptor-antagonists (MRA) treatment on blood pressure (BP), serum potassium, eGFR, pro-BNP, number and WHO DDD of antihypertensive drugs. Since 2008, 181 patients have been newly diagnosed with PA and underwent subtype...

Background: Identifying hypertensive patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) using the aldosterone to renin ratio (ARR) is crucial for optimizing their treatment. Various medications used to treat hypertension are known to alter levels of aldosterone and renin, thus affecting the ARR. As withdrawing all medication before screening is often unrealistic, we aimed to determine the degree of interference of some commonly used agents on the ARR using assays on the automated IDS-iS...