Endocrine Abstracts

BACKGROUND: Dopamine agonists are the treatment of choice in macroprolactinomas. A number of these tumours do not respond to the commonly used doses. In such cases the outcome after alternative approaches has not been clarified.AIM: To assess the response of macroprolactinomas to bromocriptine (BRC) or cabergoline (CAB) and the result of further interventions in resistant cases.PATIENTS AND METHODS: All records of the patients pres...

The blood-brain barrier for peptide hormones is protective for the maternal brain.OBJECTIVE: To compare peptide hormone levels on the two sides of the blood cerebrospinal fluid barrier in pregnant, non pregnant and menopausal women.METHODS: We investigated, with the approval of the local ethics committee, 35 healthy pregnant women at term, aged 21-41 years (group G), 27 non-pregnant women aged 21-43 years (group C) and 15 menopausa...

Introduction: Sox2 is a widely expressed marker of progenitor and stem cells in various organs, strongly expressed within Rathke’s pouch and the neural ectoderm. It exerts a critical role in the early stages of pituitary development but it is still expressed in the adult gland. Sox2 expression in pituitary adenomas and its possible correlation with clinicopathologic characteristics have not been investigated so far.Aim: To evaluate the immunohistoch...

Introduction: An improvement of survival in patients with acromegaly was claimed in the last years, with multimodal new therapies.Aims: To assess cure rates of different therapeutic protocols and the impact of these therapies on survival.Methods: 334 patients (224 F/110 M, mean age 48.1±0.7 years) with acromegaly admitted in a single Neuroendocrinology Department between Jan 2001 and Dec 2013 were retrospectively studied by GH...

Introduction: We evaluated the prevalence of metabolic and cardiovascular complications in a Romanian population with adrenal incidentalomas in comparison with an age-matched control group, evaluated in our clinic.Patients and methods: After excluding patients with overt functioning adrenal tumors, subclinical pheochromocytomas, malignant tumors, myelolipomas, data were retrieved from the files of 190 patients with adrenal incidentalomas ≥1 cm and ...

Background: Suitable postoperative radiotherapy (RT) of nonfunctioning pituitary macroadenomas (NFMAs) is still controversial, subjected to rapid technical and medical progress.Patients and methods.: We studied 87 patients with NFMA to identify factors affecting tumor control such as the time of RT and tumor pathology. Partial pituitary surgery was performed either by transfrontal (30 patients) or transsphenoidal (57 patients) approach. An immunoperoxida...

Introduction: The heel quantitative ultrasound (QUS) is useful tool in the assessment of fracture risk especially if cost issues are involved. It might be helpful in follow-up the patients who will not be treated with anti-osteoporotic drugs.Aim: To present the bone evaluation (DXA) after a period of time in patients who are initially assesed by both DXA and QUS.Material and patients: This is a prospective pilot study in a group of...

Background: PCOS-associated increased metabolic risk may be selective, owing to its heterogeneous nature. Identification of high-risk individuals could enable better studies and prevention of complications.Aim: To characterize the metabolic risk, as metabolic syndrome (MetS), of specific PCOS subphenotypes.Subjects and methods: Romanian PCOS (Rotterdam criteria) and 64 controls, 18–35 years. PCOS subphenotypes were defined: i)...

Introduction: Patients with non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFPA) and hipopituitarism had a reduced life expectancy.Aims: To assess mortality ratio and to identify prognostic factors associated with mortality in patients with NFPA in the last decade.Methods: A 196 patients (83 F/113 M, mean age 52.7±0.9 years) with NFPA admitted in a single Neuroendocrinology Department between January 2001 and December 2010 were retrospec...

Background: A large spectrum of AIP gene mutations has been identified in familial and sporadic pituitary adenomas (PA) with over 70 different mutations described to date. c.47G>A, p.R16H is an AIP exon 1 variant of unknown significance, its contribution to pituitary adenoma development being controversial.Aim: Characterization of p.R16H prevalence in a large Romanian cohort of PA patients and controls.Patients and methods: spo...