Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Cushing Syndrome have long been recognised to predispose patients to infection diseases, a consequence of the immunosuppression induced by corticosteroids. There is a predisposition to viral, bacterial, parasitic and especially fungal diseases. Opportunistic infections, particularly invasive fungal infections, represent a serious complication associated with an increased risk of mortality.Clinical case: We represent a 55 years-old woman, po...

Introduction: MEN1 is a rare autosomal dominant syndrome typically characterized by neoplastic lesions of parathyroid glands, anterior pituitary gland and endocrine pancreas. Several other tumours are associated with this syndrome, including adrenal lesions, but their prevalence and clinical characteristics (endocrine secretion and aggressiveness) are largely unknown.Objective: To determine the prevalence, clinical characteristics and the possible genoty...

Introduction: Adrenal insufficiency (AI) is a rare and potentially life-threatening disease. The most common causes are primary adrenal insufficiency (Addison’s Disease), due to an adrenocortical disease, and secondary insufficiency, due to disorders of the pituitary gland. Chronic glucocorticoid replacement is vital and patients should be educated about how to act in acute stress situations, in order to avoid adrenal crisis. Taking this into account, we organized educati...

Introduction: Adrenal tumors are usually detected due to clinical manifestations of hormonal hypersecretion or incidental findings on imaging evaluation. Although most incidentalomas are non-functioning adenomas, it is important to appropriately evaluate such masses to exclude hormonal excess or malignancy.Case description: An 81-year old male was admitted to our hospital for fever with 15 days of evolution. The patient also presented chills and loss of ...

Introduction: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare and aggressive endocrine malignancy with a poor prognosis. Hormone-secreting ACC appear with manifestations of virilization, feminization or Cushing syndrome.Case Report: A 63-year-old woman with no pathological history of relief was referred to Endocrinology evaluation with an history of deepening of the voice since 1-year ago, as well as hair loss and facial and abdominal hirsutism with 6-month evo...

Background: Several studies have highlighted the contribution of adipose tissue dysfunction to the development and progression of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), which may depend on alterations in adipokine secretion. Leptin and adiponectin are the most abundant adipokines in circulation, with recognized systemic effects, but also able to cross the blood-brain barrier and influence cognitive-related structures, such as the hippocampus.Objective: To determ...

Introduction: Prostate cancer is a public health problem worldwide. The cure is unlikely and therapeutic alternatives are limited. The Brazilian biodiversity represents a huge source of potential discovery of new drugs derived from plants. We therefore aimed to conduct a biomonitoring chemical study of plant extracts from Pouteria sp. previously shown to be cytotoxic in androgen-sensitive (LNCaP) and androgen-resistant (PC3) human prostate cancer cell lines.<p cla...

Introduction: Graves’ disease (GD) hyperthyroidism is caused by autoantibodies against TSH receptor (TRAb). Three varieties of TRAb are now recognized: stimulating (TSI), blocking and neutral antibodies. Current TRAb immunoassays detect and quantify serum immunoglobulins that interact with the TSH receptor but without discriminating their function. An automated immunoassay for the detection and quantification of TSI is available.Objective: Our study...

Introduction: Thyroglobulin (Tg) measurement in needle washouts from fine-needle aspiration biopsies (FNA-Tg) increases the sensitivity of lymph node (LN) metastasis diagnosis in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). However, the cutoff value for FNA-Tg has not been clearly established and there are large differences between clinical studies, which hinders its interpretation. Our study aimed to investigate the optimal cutoff value of FNA-Tg and evaluate its utility in the diagn...

With the wide-spread use of abiraterone/enzalutamide for CRPC, there is an urgent need to understand and reverse resistance to these treatments. Studies have implicated glucocorticoid receptor (GR) as activating androgen receptor (AR) signalling and driving resistance. Here we studied progesterone receptor (PR), which is phylogenetically most closely related to the AR. We first used digital droplet PCR in prostate cancer (PCa) cell lines and observed >10 times higher level...