Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Thyrotropin receptor (TSH-R) blocking autoantibodies (TBAb) are present in 10-15% of patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD). TBAb are functional and clinically relevant. This multicenter study compares the sensitivity and specificity of five immunoassays for the measurement of TBAb and introduces a novel and ultra-rapid TBAb bioassay.Methods: Serum samples from AITD patients were tested with two TSH-R binding immunoassays (Cobas e411...

Ovarian ageing is a naturally occurring physiological process, marked by dynamic changes in ovarian function and hormone secretion. A key endocrine regulator of ovarian function is the heterodimeric glycoprotein hormone, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). FSH is secreted as two glycosylation variants: partially glycosylated FSH (FSH21) and fully glycosylated FSH (FSH24). These variants have different in-vitro activities, with FSH21 more bioactive than FSH24. Interest...

The G protein-coupled receptor, follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR), is essential for reproduction. A key drug target of IVF, understanding the mechanisms modulating FSHR functions remains of high importance. The endogenous ligand of the FSHR, FSH, is a heterodimeric glycoprotein hormone with two predominant glycoforms identified. Partially glycosylated FSH21 has faster binding kinetics to the FSHR and more potent at activating cAMP-dependent signal pathways, in compa...

Objective: Published results of reduced morbidity and mortality with tight Glycemic Control of critical patients could not be reproduced in large prospective trials. Glycemic goals according to current respective guidelines include a target blood glucose range 140-180 mg/dl, while lower blood glucose targets may be appropriate for some patients. This study aims to provide real world evidence to this field.Methods: We performed a retrospective study using...

Introduction: The 2015 American Thyroid Association (ATA) guidelines on the management of thyroid nodules and cancer recommend specific size cut-offs for fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology. We assessed the correlation between sonographic and cytological stratification as per the guidelines, with emphasis on the size cut-offs.Methods: In a ‘real world’ prospective study, we sonographically stratified 562 thyroid nodules prior to performing ul...

Background: Early diagnosis and surveillance of Graves’ Orbitopathy (GO) is essential to prevent severe, sight-threatening complications and long-term disability; therefore, it is highly desirable to identify risk factors and early predictors of severe disease. GO is clinically assessed using the Clinical Activity Score (CAS) and the EUGOGO Severity Scale (ESS), which are subjective, qualitative tests that are used to evaluate the activity and severity at the anterior orb...

Objectives: Patients suffering from pulmonary or/and neoplastic disease are at higher risk of developing serious illness from SARS-CoV-2. TC patients with lung metastases are classified as high-risk for severe CoV-2 disease. Aim of this study was to investigate SARS-CoV-2 prevalence and severity in this particular subgroup of patients.Methods: Out of 28 patients with metastatic Differentiated Thyroid Cancer (DTC) and 21 patients with met...

Presence of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) in patients with thyroid disease has been previously reported. However, co-existence of PTHPT and papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) has been reported very rarely, mainly in the form of isolated case reports. Since the pathophysiological mechanisms of the two diseases are theoretically quite different, no causal relation between these diseases has been inferred. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of PHTP in individu...

Introduction: Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are a heterogeneous group of rare neoplasms that originate from endocrine cells with the ability to secrete amines and hormonal polypeptides. Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) can be functional or non-functional. Functional PNETs secrete common hormones such as gastrin, insulin and glucagon and much less frequent hormones such as vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). Their clinical characteristics depend on the peptide secreted....

FSH and its G protein-coupled receptor (FSHR) are essential for the coordination of reproductive functions. As such, they are a primary target of most assisted reproductive technologies, thus understanding the physiology regulating their function is paramount. Two naturally occurring glycoforms of FSH have been identified-hyperglycosylated FSH (FSH24) and hypoglycosylated FSH (FSH21), based on their ASN glycosylation pattern. The secretion of FSH21 and FSH24 has been shown to ...