Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Sex differences in clinical picture of ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome are controversial, except for the known higher prevalence in females. We compared a broad range of potential differences to enable a more accurate understanding of the clinical picture of sex-specific ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome.Design: Cohort study.Methods: We included consecutive patients with ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrom...

Background: Adrenal crisis, the most feared complication of adrenal insufficiency, is a potentially life-threatening situation of acute glucocorticoid deficiency. After successful surgery, many patients with Cushing’s syndrome develop (transient) adrenal insufficiency. The incidence of adrenal crisis in patients treated for hypercortisolism is unknown.Methods: Cohort study including consecutive patients with Cushing’s syndrome with adrenal insu...

Background: Long-term safety data (1998 to mid-2016) are reported for adult patients with GHD treated with GH (Norditropin® (somatropin), Novo Nordisk) as prescribed by treating physicians in the real-life clinical setting and enrolled in NordiNet® International Outcome Study (IOS) (NCT00960128), a non-interventional, multicentre study.Objective and hypotheses: To describe and report safety data and incidence rates (IRs) (...

Introduction: Although biochemical markers of acromegaly disease activity, including GH and IGF1, may fluctuate from day-to-day, biochemical treatment response in clinical trials is generally monitored using single-point analyses. Accordingly, longitudinal evaluations may assess patient status more accurately. In a phase 3 trial, oral octreotide capsules (OOC) demonstrated sustained composite endpoint GH and IGF1 response for ≤13 months in 151 patients with acromegaly pr...

Background: Adult GH deficiency (GHD) is diagnosed by provocative testing of GH secretion. To improve diagnostic accuracy of GHRH plus arginine (GARG) testing, we evaluated the influence of age, BMI, and sex. Furthermore, we aimed to established normative data for an automatic immunoassay specifically measuring 22kD human GH.Methods: Eighty-seven patients with hypothalamic-pituitary disease and 200 healthy controls were enrolled. Controls were prospectiv...

Background: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare solid tumor with poor prognosis in advanced stages. The adrenolytic drug mitotane and cytotoxic chemotherapies are current treatment options with limited clinical efficacy. Animal experiments pointed to an adrenotoxic effect of sunitinib suggesting potential antineoplastic activity in ACC.Study population: Thirty-eight patients with advanced ACC progressing after mitotane and 1–3 cytotoxic chemoth...

The ERCUSYN (European Registry on Cushing’s syndrome (CS)) study is a project funded by the European Commission Public Health Program (PHP 800200), of which the ESE is one of the 41 Partners from 25 countries. The aims include obtaining prospective and follow-up data at EU level on epidemiology, mortality, outcome of therapies, co-morbidities, assessment of diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, quality of life evaluation using a disease-generated questionnaire (CushingQo...

Acromegalic patients under treatment with Octreotide LAR (Oct), 10, 20 or 30 mg were switched to Lanreotide Autogel 120 mg (Lan) at different dose intervals: 56, 42 and 28 days respectively. Just before the fourth Lan injection, IGF-I values were measured and the dose interval for the final three injections adjusted accordingly: if IGF-I values were between 1 and 2 standard deviations (S.D.) above the age and sex related mean value, no change in dose-interval wa...

Background: Leptin has multiple functions including modulating energy homeostasis and the immune response. Leptin is an important target for therapy to modulate the immune response in several autoimmune diseases. Although the structure of leptin is known, that of its receptor remains unsolved. The aim of this project was to express and purify the extracellular domain the leptin receptor (ObR) in order to carry out functional and crystallisation studies to elucidate the mechani...

Background: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare and heterogeneous malignancy with incompletely understood pathogenesis and poor prognosis. Computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are routinely performed for imaging of the adrenal mass and for standard staging of chest and abdomen as lung and liver are the primary organs for metastatic spread in ACC. Contrast ultrasound is a non-invasive procedure which has been shown to have a high sensitivity an...