Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: That acromegaly may cause cancer remains an unsolved issue. Aim of the present study was to assess the standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of different types of cancer in a nationwide multicenter cohort study in Italy on acromegalic patients who have been treated in the somatostatin-receptor ligands era.Methods and design: We have evaluated the prevalence of neoplasia from a series of 1512 patients who were proactively followed in 24 terti...

Introduction: Cortisol autonomy may be frequently demonstrated in patients with adrenal incidentaloma and this has been associated to increased cardiovascular (CV) risk. However, only few data are available on CV events and related mortality in such patients. Aims of the study were: 1) to stratify CV events and mortality by the degree of cortisol secretion; 2) to evaluate the effect of adrenalectomy on CV events and mortality.Methods and Design: Data of ...

This study presents epidemiological data of 1512 Italian acromegalic patients who had been diagnosed from 1980 to 2002 and followed-up for more than 10 years, retrospectively collected by 24 tertiary referral centers. Data on co-morbidities and mortality were compared to those of the general Italian population obtained by the Italian National Institute of Statistic. At diagnosis median age of patients (41% M, 59% F) was 46 years, GH (mean±S.D.) 31±37 m...

The aim of the present study was to compare the assessment of BMD measured either by DEXA or by QUS in patients with AI. We evaluated 40 patients with AI, who underwent an evaluation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and bone densitometry measured either by DEXA (Hologic QDR 4500 W) at lumbar spine and at femur or QUS (Achilles Express) at the right foot. Subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (SCS) was defined as abnormal response to at least 2 standard tests...

BackgroundThe management of post-operative recurrences of ACC remains controversial, although the current guidelines recommend a surgical approach whenever feasible with radical intent.AimThe aim of our study was to evaluate retrospectively the management of recurrences in patients with ACC. We collected data of 106 patients with ACC followed at the San Luigi Hospital for the management of recurrence. Median ...

Background and objective: Optimization of glucocorticoid (GC) replacement therapy in adrenal insufficiency (AI) is crucial to avoid consequences of under- or overtreatment. Dosing of GC replacement is mainly based on clinical grounds; however, the impact of patient’s characteristics on daily GC requirement is poorly evaluated. The aim of the study is to assess the influence of sex (M/F) and BMI on dosing GC in patients with AI of different etiology....

Mitotane therapy is associated with many side effects, including thyroid function perturbations mimicking central hypothyroidism, possibly due to laboratory test interference or pituitary direct effects of mitotane. Therefore, we aimed at investigating whether increasing concentrations of mitotane in the therapeutic range might interfere with thyroid hormone assays and evaluate the effects of mitotane on a mouse TSH- producing pituitary cell line. TSH, FT4 and FT<su...

Aim of this study is to present preliminary epidemiological data on a population of 1512 acromegalic patients attending 22 tertiary centers in Italy from 1980 to 2002. At our knowledge this is the first large–scale epidemiological Italian study on acromegaly. Gender was 624 (41.2%) men and 888 (58.8%) women. Mean age at diagnosis was 45±13 years, 43±13 for men and 47±13 for women. Median estimated duration of acromegaly before diagnosis was 74 months (range...

The existing follow-up studies on patients with incidentally discovered adrenal adenoma (AA) focused almost exclusively on repeat imaging and endocrine work-up on a short period.Of consecutive 152 patients with AA referred to our center from 1989 to 2003, we have assessed the risk of developing metabolic disorders and vascular complications in the 74 patients who did not underwent surgery (51 women and 23 men, median age 57, range 25–74 years) durin...

Recent guidelines recommend to use the 1-mg DST to screen for subclinical hypercortisolism assuming that a post-DST cortisol >5.0 μg/dl define this condition. However, several experts suggest a more sensitive cut-off at 1.8 μg/dl while others consider mandatory to confirm unsuppressibility with a 8-mg DST. A consecutive series of 64 patients (22 men, 42 women, aged 28–81 years) with clinically inapparent adrenal adenoma were studied between 2005 and 2007. Th...