Endocrine Abstracts

The endocrine active compound 4-methylbenzylidene-camphor (4-MBC) is frequently used as an UV absorber in sunscreens and various skin care products. Though 4-MBC is weakly estrogenic in the reproductive system of fishes and rodents it shows strong anti-osteoporotic effects. Furthermore, different studies show percutanous absorption of 4-MBC after dermal administration resulting in identical biotransformation in humans and rats. Female Sprague-Dawley rats received five concentr...

Objective: Pituitary diseases cause a wide range of local and systemic symptoms and severely affect patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL), which can be monitored using both disease-specific and generic questionnaires. The most frequently used generic HRQoL questionnaire is the Short Form-36 (SF-36), generating a mental (MCS) and physical component score (PCS). The shorter 12-item version (SF-12) can improve efficiency of patient monitoring and outcome measurem...

PurposeAs the majority of patients with pituitary disease are of working age, their health situation may negatively impact their functioning at work. However, work participation can also be influenced by contextual (environmental and personal) factors. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate the perspective of patients with pituitary disease on their functioning at work and on contextual factors contributing to work-related problems, using t...

Insulin sensitivity in GHD patients tends to decrease with age and variations in body composition. Several indices of insulin sensitivity have been considered and among these HOMA, ISI and QUICKI are based on mathematical calculations taking into account glucose and/or insulin levels either in basal conditions or after OGTT. Aim of present study was to validate the different indices in a population of pre-pubertal GHD children (n=66) by ROC curve analysis. All patients ...

Background: Arginine vasopressin (AVP) is released upon osmotic stimulation or hypovolemia in order to maintain water balance. A recent study showed a role of AVP in haematopoiesis by stimulating red blood cell precursors, suggesting a higher risk of anaemia in patientis with AVP deficiency. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of low AVP levels in patients with central diabetes insipidus (cDI) and primary polydipsia (PP) on haemoglobin and the prevalence of anaemia...

Despite their nature of being clinically inapparent, subtle laboratory abnormalities are sometimes detected in patients with adrenal incidentalomas and the question arises whether these changes justify surgical intervention in a patient with an otherwise benign adrenal tumour. Therefore, we aimed at finding further expressions of adrenal hormone excess that reflect net glucocorticoid action.Since glucocorticoids are potent immune suppressants we studied ...

Imbalanced maternal nutrition during pregnancy can cause fetal growth retardation, metabolic changes and alterations of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) system in the offspring. Here, we investigated the effects of maternal low and high protein diets during pregnancy in pigs on materno-fetal HPA regulation and expression of glucocorticoid receptor (GR), mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1 and 2 (11β-HSD1 and 11β-...

IntroductionObesity is highly prevalent, comes with serious health burden and is difficult to treat. In a minority, there is a genetic cause for the obesity. In these patients, therapy-resistant obesity is often observed despite intensive lifestyle treatment. Moreover, it is still unclear whether bariatric surgery is less successful in genetic obesity. Liraglutide is a Glucagon-Like-Peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist or GLP-1 analogue, showing positive e...

Objective: Hypopituitarism in adults may be a consequence of TBI, but in the acute or long term management of TBI patients (ptx), endocrine evaluations are not usually included. Aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of hypopituitarism and metabolic syndrome in a population of 54 severe (n=31) and moderate (n=23) TBI ptx (38 M, 16 F; age (mean±S.D.): 39.8±2.1 years) who had TBI more than 12 months before.<p class="abstext...

Recent evidence shows that patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are at substantial risk of hypopituitarism. However, the pathomechanisms are still not completely understood. Little is known about the association of morphological changes in the sella region with pituitary function in TBI. In this study, we assessed morphological abormalities of the sella region in patients with TBI and their relation to endocrine function.We have studied MR or CT sc...