Endocrine Abstracts

This work aimed to evaluate pituitary–adrenal axis and tissue metabolism of cortisol in patients with long standing type one diabetes.Fifty patients with diabetes type 1 were investigated; age 38±10 years (mean±S.D.), age at diagnosis 25.5±10 years, disease duration 15±8 years, BMI 24.5±2.7 kg/cm2, HbA1c 7.2±1.2%. Control group consisted of 40 healthy volunteers.The study...

Pituitary and adrenal gland assessment, is one of the most important aspects of the management of a pituitary and adrenal adenoma.Clinical practice varies widely with regard to assessment of pituitary and adrenal status pre- and post-operative. Pre-operative testing includes dynamic testing to assess function which is not practical in the immediate post-operative period. Instead a single morning serum total hormones are measured while a more definitive a...

The current conventional glucocorticoid (GC) replacement therapy in primary adrenal insufficiency (Addison’s disease) and congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) renders the cortisol levels unphysiological, resulting in very high levels alternating with almost undetectable levels of cortisol over the day. This reduces not merely the patient’s quality of life but increases the patient’s morbidity and mortality. The HPA axis is characterised by a dynamic circadian va...

Introduction: Salivary cortisol measurement, representing free cortisol, seems to be a promissing alternative method to serum cortisol. Besides its use in the diagnostics of hypercortisolism, it could be of help in evaluation of adrenocortical reserve. It might be useful especially in patients on estrogen replacement, which modulates transcortin and hence total cortisol levels.Aims: Compare the reliability of salivary vs. serum cortisol assessment during...

Objective: Skeletal disability pathogenesis is multifactorial. Many studies have proved a negative relation of smoking on calcium-phosphate metabolisms, bone density and quality; however in some other papers these results have not been confirmed. The aim of the study was to monitor the influence of the length of smoking, a number of cigarettes smoked and the age of the first use of cigarettes on the whole-body bone density.Methods: Whole-body densitometr...

This work aimed at acquiring data on pituitary response to CRH test in autoimmune type 1 diabetics with adult onset with/without thyroid autoimmunity. Our previous study showed 25% of such diabetic patients without clinical and immunological signs of adrenal insufficiency had lower response to the Synacthen test with normal basal levels of ACTH and cortisol.Twenty-seven diabetics were investigated; age 44±10 years (mean±S.D.), ag...

Introduction: Cigarette smoking is one of the most serious substance abuse problems. It is generally accepted that nicotine and other chemicals in tobacco smoke alter endocrine functions in men and adverse reproductive outcomes, including deterioration of sperm. Studies on the effects of smoking and smoking cessation on male sex hormones are inconsistent. We studied changes of hormonal levels in men during smoking cessation and we looked for a possible predictive marker of suc...

Objective: Chronic smoking alters the circulating levels of sex hormones and possibly also the neuroactive steroids, however, the data available is limited.Patients and methods: Therefore, a broad spectrum of free and conjugated steroids and related substances was quantified by GC–MS and RIA in premenopausal smokers and in age-matched (38.9±7.3 years of age) non-smokers in the follicular (FP) and luteal phases (LP) of menstrual cycle (10 non-sm...

Background: Smoking represents the most widespread substance dependence in the world. Several studies show the nicotine’s ability to alter women hormonal homeostasis. Women smokers have higher testosterone and lower estradiol levels throughout life compared to women non-smokers. This negatively affects women reproductive function. Furthermore, alteration of neuroactive and neuroprotective steroids occurs in women smokers, which plays an important role in the activity of t...

Introduction: Cigarette smoking is one of the most serious substance abuse problems. It is generally accepted that nicotine and other chemicals in tobacco smoke alter endocrine function in women, induce changes in female hormonal balance and likely contributes to reported associations of smoking with adverse reproductive outcomes, including menstrual dysfunction, infertility, and earlier menopause. Studies on the effects of smoking and smoking cessation on female sex hormones ...