Endocrine Abstracts

Kisspeptin produced by placenta is involved in the regulation of early placental development. Aberrant placental development and placental dysfunction are common in pregnancies with diabetes and hypertension. Parameters of fetal growth, feto-placental circulation, pregnancy outcome, placental weight and morphology were recorded and correlated with kisspeptin levels in pregnant women with diabetes (chronic insulin dependent-IDDM and gestational-GD) and hypertension (chronic-H, ...

Introduction: Several studies have shown that cortisol and altered HPA axis activity may participate in pathogenesis and severity of coronary artery disease (CAD).Aim: To examine possible interaction between cortisol secretion and HPA axis activity with severity of CAD.Patients and methods: Diurnal cortisol secretion and dexamethasone suppression test (DST) were analyzed in 200 consecutive patients (mean age 59.3±8.6) referred...

Objective: Kisspeptin is hormone involved in the initiation and maintenance of fertility. Placenta is the major source of kisspeptin but its role during gestation is still matter of debate. Studies investigating kisspeptin levels during gestation in patients with diabetes and hypertension are lacking. Our aim was to prospectively evaluate kisspeptin levels in pregnant women with chronic diseases such as IDDM and H.Design and methods: Kisspeptin levels we...

Background: The so-called silent pituitary adenomas are a subtype of pituitary tumors showing positive immunoreactivity for one or more pituitary hormones, but without any clinical manifestations for oversecretion of these hormones. They are clinically labeled as non-functional pituitary adenomas (NFPA), some of them with particularly aggressive behavior. Rare patients might present with big plurihormonal pituitary tumors which ‘whisper’ hormones (GH or ACTH) and pro...

Hypopituitarism, in particular growth hormone (GH) deficiency, is common among survivors of traumatic brain injury (TBI). We investigated neurobehavioral consequences of TBI-induced GH deficiency (GHD) in 61 patients (aged 37.7±1.7 years, 44 male/17 female) at least one year (mean, 3.9±0.6 years) after moderate and severe TBI (mean GCS score 10.6). All patients were tested with standard neuropsychological battery (MMSE, TMT, RAVLT, RCF, BNT and WCST for executive cog...

Introduction: Intronic BclI polymorphism of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene and adrenal adenomas of incidental discovery are frequently associated with metabolic syndrome. We studied in these patients metabolic and hormonal parameters, the sequence alteration in BclI polymorphism of the GR gene from constitutive DNA and the expression of Hsp70 within the tumor and in tissue adjacently to tumor.Patients and methods: We assessed 114 healthy...

Background: Several susceptibility genes have been found to be associated with development of pheochromocytoma (PHEO): RET, VHL, SDHB and SDHD. We investigate the frequency of germ-line mutations in SDHB and VHL genes in patients with apparently sporadic PHEO.Material and methods: Fifty patients (38 women, mean age 42) with apparently sporadic adrenal and extra-adrenal PHEO were screened. DNA was extracted from whole blood and from paraffin embedded tumo...

A 34-year-old woman was initially presented with clinical signs of Cushing’s syndrome (CS). On endocrinological examination, a diagnosis of ACTH dependent CS was established (serum cortisol: 08.00 h: 1245 nmol/l; 24.00 h: 275; plasma ACTH concentration 104 ng/l; inadequate cortisol suppresion on LDDST (787) and suppresion to 318 following HDDST). A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirmed a microadenoma in the left part of the pituitary. Ultrasound examination confirmed...

Background: Mutational screening of the MEN1 gene has been recommended for patients who fulfill clinical criteria for familial or sporadic MEN1 and those suspicious or atypical of MEN1.Patients and methods: Eighteen apparently unrelated individuals (6 males; 12 females, age range 16–71) with clinical manifestations of MEN1 were analised. In addition, we evaluated 7 relatives. Genomic DNA from peripheral blood leucocytes was extracted using st...

Schizophrenia is a devastating mental illness associated with obesity and diabetes mellitus rates that far exceed those of the general population.The aim was to evaluate changes in positive energy balance (serum insulin, leptin and ghrelin) and hormones involved in neuroendocrine regulations (serum cortisol, growth hormone and prolactin) before treatment with atypical antypsyhotics (SGA) in normal weight patients with schizophrenia.<p class="abstext"...