Endocrine Abstracts

The aim of this epidemiologic study, performed in a wide population of high-school students in Northern Italy, was to obtain an unbiased estimate of the prevalence of hyperandrogenic states in adolescents and young females.2052 female students, aged 15–19 years, were consecutively contacted. 939/2052 (45.8%) refused to participate in the study, but 431 of the 939 non-participants (45.9%) agreed to fill out a brief questionnaire aimed to broadly asse...

Introduction: Accumulating evidence suggests an association of vitamin D with insulin resistance (IR) in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The role of PTH in insulin metabolism is less clear. We aim to study the association of PTH and 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels with metabolic and endocrine parameters in a cohort of PCOS women.Methods: We measured PTH and 25(OH)D levels in 544 PCOS and 139 healthy control women within the same age ran...

Objective: To study HbA1c as a tool for diagnosing diabetes and to study HbA1c as a cardiovascular risk marker in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).Methods: A retrospective observational study at an academic tertiary-care medical center. In total, 208 premenopausal women with PCOS participated. Patients underwent clinical evaluation (Ferriman–Gallwey score, body mass index, waist, blood pressure), hormone analyses (testosterone, sex hor...

Excessive ovarian androgen production developing in post-menopausal women can be associated with severe hirsutism and virilisation. In the absence of an identifiable androgen-secreting tumour, medical therapy rather than surgical removal is a potential treatment option. Despite this, the role and outcomes of medical therapy are not well characterised in this context. We present the long-term outcomes of 2 women with postmenopausal ovarian hyperandrogenism, both of whom were tr...

Metformin 500 mg three times daily had been advised to our patients suffering from the polycystic ovary syndrome by the Rotterdam criteria who did not want to take contraceptive pills. More recently, we have included life style changes to metformin taking: increased physical activity, low glycaemic index diet (with calorie restriction for the obese). The efficacy of the two treatment forms was compared. The metformin only group consisted of 27 patients (age 18–39 years, m...

Introduction: The polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and obesity are related, yet different complex diseases, with the same genes possibly playing different roles in each disease. INSIG2, an obesity-associated gene (by rs7566605 C/C genotype) is a good candidate for PCOS. Its genotypes were not associated with obesity in PCOS patients. To date, there are no published association studies of rs7566605 with PCOS itself.Aim: To perform a case-control associati...

Introduction: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a heterogenous disease with well established metabolic abnormalities among women of reproductive age. There are various diagnostic criteria to define and establish PCOS. However, there are some conflicting data regarding the the optimal diagnostic criteria for PCOS and the metabolic consequences. We evaluated the clinical, endocrine and metabolic features between main PCOS phenotypes according to different diagnostic criteria.<...

Introduction: Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21 hydroxylase deficiency is one of the most common autosomal recessive hereditary diseases. There are two main forms of CAH: early onset, the classic variety, and late onset or non classic type. Here, we aim to describe the case of a young lady with features of both varieties of CAH.Case report: Twenty-three-year-lady of Asian descent presented with polymenorrhagia since menarche (age 13 years), ...

Androgen receptor (AR) containes a variable polyglutamine chain that is determined by the different number of CAG repeats in the AR gene on the X chromosome. The transactivational competence of AR is inversely related to the length of the polyglutamine chain, respectively to the CAG repeat number. Therefore, we investigated the role of the androgen receptor polymorphism in healthy hirsute and non hirsute women.CAG repeat length polymorphism was analyzed ...

The prevalence of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is generally estimated at 5–7% in women of reproductive age. But studies regarding the prevalence of PCOS have largely been confined to non-Asians. We aimed to estimate prevalence and phenotype of PCOS in Korean women. Cross sectional study was done between November 2008 and May 2009. A questionnaire based on menstrual history and clinical manifestations of hyperandrogenism was utilized to find out ‘probable cases&#1...