Endocrine Abstracts

We report of two sisters with hyperandrogenism, menstrual abnormalities, and severe insulin resistance. The elder sister was seen after puberty at age 21 and she was referred for the evaluation of hirsutism and polymenorrhoea; the younger was seen earlier in life, at age 15, for the evaluation of secondary amenorrhoea. In both of them, we performed the diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in accordance to the Rotterdam criteria. They also presented a lipodystrophic ph...

The aim of study was to evaluate in a group of obese women the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, defined accordingly to the International Diabetes Federation, of single factors of the syndrome and the correlations with endocrine factors. We evaluated 351 women, 262 overweight-obese and 89 normal weight controls, which underwent physical, biochemical and hormonal evaluation. The prevalence of MS in obese and overweight subjects was 62.3%; the prevalence increased significan...

Tissue inflammation is usually transient but in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) inflammation persists. It remains unclear why inflammation persists in some tissues and not in others. Recent studies have shown that stromal cells such as fibroblasts play a pivotal role in determining this persisitance. We have hypothesized that glucocorticoid (GC) activation via the enzyme 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11beta-HSD1) within fibroblasts plays a key role in ...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is becoming more common over the world. Its predisposition for evolving to cirrhosis and hepatocellular cancer, as well as its link to extrahepatic symptoms, puts patients and clinicians under a double burden. Several studies have found a link between NAFLD and many endocrinopathies, demonstrating a substantial bi-directional link between NAFLD and hypogonadism, in both men and women. In man with T2DM, NAFLD is linked to reduced total ...

Introduction: The role of metformin in PCOS is very well known and several studies reported effects of thiazolidinediones and SGLT2 inhibitors on metabolic parametars in these patients.Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of metformin, pioglitazone and empagliflozin treatment on metabolic control, hormonal imbalance, weight loss and ovulations in obese patients with PCOS and prediabetes.Methods: BMI, waist ci...

Introduction: Primary aldosteronism (PA) features a higher prevalence of cardiovascular events and renal complications as compared with essential hypertension. The effects of aldosterone excess on ascending aorta have never been investigated in human subjects.Methods: From August 2014 to December 2015, we enrolled forty-seven consecutive PA outpatients who had not undergone surgery of the adrenal mass. Hypercortisolism and pheochromocytoma were excluded....

Steroid testing has a central role in clinical decision-making and in research studies on diseases such as hypercortisolisms, female hyperandrogenism, male hypogonadism or inborn disorders of steroid synthesis. Recently, liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) proved its superiority to routine immunoassays (IA) in accurately and sensitively measuring low level steroids. However, the replacement of automated IA with LC–MS/MS platforms is limited...

Multiple pituitary hormone deficit and hypothalamic obesity are common complications after brain surgery for childhood tumors. Despite adequate replacement hormone therapy, obesity develops equally, but liver failure is not usually described. In this study, four subjects who had undergone surgery for brain tumors involving the peri-hypothalamic area when they were nursing or as youths (9 months, 6 years, 9 years and 20 years). They were referred to our Unit when they were 19, ...

The hormone assessment in saliva is emerging as a new valuable tool for clinical and research purposes. Salivary levels are supposed to reflect the free fraction of circulating steroids, thus representing a more informative indicator of their activity. Moreover, saliva collection is not stressful and does not require medical assistance, allowing reliable and multiple sampling in a day. Liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) technology offers high s...

Obesity is characterized by hyperactivated endocannabinoid System (ECS) in brain and periphery and by increased levels of circulating endocannabinoids (cECs), anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2AG). It is still debated whether in absence of obesity cECs are only modulated by adiposity or if they are associated with cardiometabolic parameters.We recruited 155 healthy normal weight (NW, BMI: 18.5–24.9 kg/m2) drug-free volunteers ...