Endocrine Abstracts

Elevated insulin levels are correlated with colonic adenomas and carcinomas in the general population. Patients with acromegaly are considered at high risk to develop colonic lesions and have a high insulin levels. To evaluate the role of insulin levels on colonic polyps (hyperplastic, adenomatous, single or synchronous) or adenocarcinoma in acromegaly we designed this analytical, observational, open, prospective, study enrolling 189 patients (100 women, 89 men, age 20–82...

Background: Nodular goiter is one of the commonest endocrinopathy. Its incidence increases with age accounting for more than 50% of subjects older than 60 years. Elderly subjects more frequently suffer from pressure symptoms. Loco-regional treatments, like laser photocoagulation and percutaneous ethanol injection, are a potentially useful tool to treat TNs but their efficacy is still debated. Radiofrequency thermal ablation (RTA) has been applied to several benign and malignan...

The most frequent cause of death in acromegaly is cardiomyopathy. To evaluate determinants of the acromegalic cardiomyopathy we performed an analytical, observational, open, prospective, controlled study in 205 patients with active acromegaly (108 women and 97 men) and 205 non-acromegalic subjects sex- and age-matched with the patients. We determined the prevalence of Left Ventricular (LV) hypertrophy (LVH), diastolic and systolic dysfunction, by echocardiography- measured LV ...

Adults with hypopituitarism are known to have reduced life expectancy with a 2-fold higher risk of death for cardiovascular disease compared with controls. In Italy, to identify individuals at high risk for cardiovascular disease, the function of the Progetto CUORE has been identified and the global cardiovascular risk score has been built using data from different Italian cohorts. To assess the global cardiovascular risk score in adult hypopituitaric patients: 108 hypopituita...

Introduction: Somatostatin analogues (SSA) represent the main therapeutic option in patients affected with functioning well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors (NET). However, after a variable time from the start of the therapy tachyphylaxys may cause lack of control of clinical syndrome and progression of the disease.Aim: The aim of this preliminary study was to evaluate efficacy in terms of reduction of circulating markers, control of the clinical syn...

Introduction: Bone and energy metabolisms are deeply related determining a two-way street aimed in regulating the energy utilization [1]. Mountain ultra-marathons are peculiar aerobic performances hardly proving whole body homeostasis [2]. In this study we aimed at investigating and characterizing the metabolic profile (hormones involved in energy metabolism), the metabolic inflammation profile (adipokines), the bone metabolism (bone turnover markers), and their integration (m...

Introduction: Although underlying mechanisms are largely unknown, bone metabolism is regulated by specific microRNAs and changes in their expression are associated with metabolic bone disorders. Exercise is a determinant of bone metabolism; however, different training protocols differently affect bone. Little is known about the effects of exercise on bone-specific miRNA expression.We studied the effect of a 8-week high-intensity training protocol on circ...

CAH has been described to be associated to infertility and semen abnormalities in 40–70% of adult male patients, because of hypogonodotropic hypogonadism, consequent to the increased levels of sex steroids, but mostly because of the frequent presence of testicular adrenal rest tumors. The aim of the current study was to evaluate semen parameters and hormonal setting in a subset of men with CAH. Fourteen patients with classical CAH due to 21-HD (six with simple virilizing,...

Somatostatin analogues (SSA) represent a recognized therapeutic option in patients affected with functioning neuroendocrine tumors (NET). In non-functioning NET, SSA are reported to induce tumor stabilization in most of cases and objective response in <5%. NET associated to Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) are inherited tumors, generally located in the duodeno-pancreatic trait, characterized by well differentiated histotype, high expression of somatostatin recept...

Prolactin-secreting (PRL) adenomas are about 40% of all pituitary adenomas. The most important clinical symptoms of PRL excess are gonadal and sexual dysfunction as a result of tumor expansion in patients with macroadenomas. Medical therapy of prolactinomas relies on the use of dopamine agonists which induce normalization of PRL levels and shrinkage of the tumor mass in the majority of patients. The present study evaluated whether doses of dopamine agonist inducing normalizati...