Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: In Cushing’s Syndrome, chronic glucocorticoid excess and their disrupted circadian rhythm lead to insulin-resistance, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia and cardiovascular comorbidities. As undifferentiated, self-renewing progenitors of adipocytes, mesenchymal stem cells may display the detrimental effects of glucocorticoid excess, thus revealing a promising model to study molecular mechanisms underlying metabolic complications of Cushing’s Syndrome.<p cl...

Objective: Our institution (University Hospital “L. Vanvitelli“ - Naples, Italy) is a high-volume (HV) center in Naples metropolitan area and many patients are referred there to repeat thyroid fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) after initial FNAC performed in low-volume institutions (LV). The aims of the study were to 1) to examine the inter-observer agreement between HV and LV institutions according to the Italian thyroid cytology system, and 2) explore how the ...

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...

Introduction: AIT develops in 15–20% of patients receiving amiodarone. Patients with persistent thyrotoxicosis or those with instable cardiac function, may be candidate for thyroidectomy; however, thyrotoxicosis and underlying cardiovascular disease may increased surgical risk.Matherials and methods: We retrospectively selected 23 AIT patients treated with a total thyroidectomy, from January 2000 to December 2010 [19 men, 4 women; mean (+SD), age 61...

The dopamine agonist cabergoline has been found to be effective in inducing normalization of cortisol secretion in 25–50% of patients with Cushing’s disease after long-term treatment. Moreover, tumor shrinkage have been documented in selected patients with pituitary corticotroph tumors. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of cabergoline withdrawal in patients with a stable normalization of cortisol secretion and stable or absent visualization of p...

Subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (SCS) is a mild autonomous cortisol hypersecretion without specific clinical syndrome of glucocorticoid excess. The aim of this study was to compare cardiac structure and function in patients with adrenal incidentaloma. Twenty patients and 20 sex- and age-matched healthy controls entered the study: among patients, 11 had SCS and the remaining nine had normal cortisol secretion All patients and controls were submitted to Doppler echocardiogra...

The first-line treatment of Cushing’s disease is surgery, although it is effective in inducing a long-term remission in around 50% of patients with Cushing’s disease (CD). Nowadays, no pituitary tumor-directed medical treatment is available with the exception of cabergoline, which has been recently demonstrated to control cortisol secretion without major side effects in around 40% of patients with Cushing’s disease. Cabergoline has been recently demonstrated to ...

Acromegaly is known to be associated to an increased cardiovascular risk, due to the increased prevalence of glucose intolerance and dyslipidemia and pre-atherosclerotic lesions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of treatment with the GH receptor antagonist pegvisomant on cardiovascular risk and atherosclerosis in patients with acromegaly resistant to somatostatin analogues. Twelve patients (4 m, 8 f, 28–58 yrs) and 24 sex-, age- and BMI-matched controls en...

Dopamine agonists have been used as first or adjunctive therapy for acromegaly for many years, but relatively few studies have assessed the efficacy of a newer agonist, cabergoline (CAB) alone or in combination with somatostatin analogues (SSA). The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of combined treatment with SSA plus CAB in patients with acromegaly and resistance to SSA, defined as lack of normalization of IGF-I levels after long-term (>1 year) and hig...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common motor neurone disorder in human adults, presents is characterized by selective and progressive degeneration of upper and lower motor neurones in central nervous system. GH secretion, evaluated by GHRH+arginine test, has been recently reported to be impaired in about 70% of untreated ALS patients. The currently available drug for ALS treatment is riluzole, a compound acting through inhibition of glutamate relase, post-synapti...