Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Copeptin is used as a diagnostic marker for acute myocardial infarction, adrenomedullin as a prognostic marker for congestive heart failure. Both hormones may be involved in pathophysiology of metabolic syndrome.Methods: We have used sera of the ‘Silent diabetes study’ (1). Sera of 920 patients were eligible for this analysis. All patients underwent an oral glucose tolerance test, patients with previously known diabetes were exclude...

Introduction: Microalbuminuria tends to appear in Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and reflecting underlying cardiovascular disease rather than diabetic nephropathy presented at diagnosis. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of microalbuminuria and its possible relations with T2D, pre-diabetes and hypertension, in a representative sample (n=2860) of the adult population (>18 years old) of Galicia (NW Spain).Material and methods: Subjects ...

Introduction: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is common among elderly men and patients suffering from chronic diseases, the latter probably including also HIV infection. No studies, however, compared the prevalence of ED in HIV-infected and -uninfected individuals using the IIEF-15.Aim: To compare ED prevalence in young-middle aged men with and without HIV infection using the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-15) questionnaire.<p class="abstex...

Background: PPI are known to diminish the intestinal absorption of L-T4, which is commonly ingested as tablets of L-T4 sodium salt. However, a liquid formulation is available (Tirosint, oral solution, IBSA Farmaceutici Italia s.r.l., Italy), in which the hormone is solubilized in 28.8% ethyl alcohol. One ml of this formulation (=28 drops) contains 100 mcg L-T4 sodium salt in 243 mg ethanol. Because this formulation contains L...

AI are incidentally discovered adrenal masses without any prior suspicions of adrenal disease. They are most frequently hormonally inactive, with arterial hypertension (AH) as a common finding.The aim was to determine upright and supine PR and ALD levels in patients with AI, normotensive and hypertensive.Two hundred and eight patients (148 women and 60 men, mean age 55.08±11.02 years, mean BMI 27.91±4.6 kg/m2) ...

Introduction: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare, but highly malignant endocrine tumor. Surgery is the primary choice of treatment. In case of inoperable disease or tumor recurrence, therapy with the adrenolytic drug mitotane is usually applied. Plasma mitotane concentrations of >14 mg/l (50 μM) seem required for an effect on tumor mass. Despite its clinical use, the effects of mitotane on cell proliferation and hormone production have been poorly investigated <...

Background and aims: Hypovitaminosis D may be associated with metabolic parameters in addition to its well-known calcemic actions. There is increasing evidence that vitamin D metabolism affects the risk of insulin resistance although the underlying molecular mechanism of this association is not clear but on the basis of evidence it is not clear whether or not vitamin D supplementation therapy in vitamin D-deficient prediabetics affects the prevention of type 2 diabetes. Our st...

Human seminal plasma contains a large array of proteins required for the normal physiology of spermatozoa and fertilization. To provide informations about the physiological mechanisms of male fertility we performed proteomic studies on human seminal plasma by a top-down approach. A semen sample was collected in a fertile normospermic man (sperm concentration 60×106 per ml; progressive motility 58%; normal morphology 45%). Hormonal blood assay was performed: tes...

Introduction: Obesity is a heterogenous disorder. One of its subtypes that has been recently described is termed the metabolically healthy, but obese (MHO) individuals. Preliminary evidence suggests that this could be due to lower visceral fat levels and earlier onset of obesity.Objectives: To determine the prevalence of MHO in a sample of obese patients. To evaluate whether body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) are...

Two medical therapies are now available for the treatment of acromegaly. Pegvisomant is a growth hormone (GH) receptor antagonist. Somatostatin analogues, in contrast, act by inhibiting the release of GH from the pituitary. The primary objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of pegvisomant (P) to that of octreotide LAR (LAR) in terms of IGF-1 normalisation. The secondary objective was to compare safety and tolerability between the two treatments.<p class="abste...