Endocrine Abstracts

Current therapies for acromegaly are unsatisfactory for some patients. High dose thiazoledinedines have been reported to shrink tumor size and reduce serum GH levels in animal models of acromegaly. To study the effects of increasing doses of rosiglitazone on serum GH and IGF1 concentrations in acromegalic patients, we designed a phase two clinical trial. We enrolled five consecutive patients with active acromegaly uncontrolled under conventional therapies. They received increa...

IgG4-related hypophysitis, a type of IgG4-related disease, is a rare condition. It appears to be sensitive to glucocorticoids in most patients, but its recurrence is likely.Clinical case: A 17 year-old girl was referred for hypotonic polyuria and polydipsia of 1 month duration. Water deprivation test was suggestive of central diabetes insipidus. Basal and dynamic assessment of pituitary anterior function were unremarkable. Patient did suffer from autoimm...

Introduction: The anatomical and physiological changes induced by bariatric surgery (BS) can significantly impact the absorption and pharmacokinetics of orally administered medication. In particular, levothyroxine (LT4) dosage, given its dependence on patient’s weight and gastric pH for optimal absorption, is expected to change following BS. However, the literature is not unanimous and there is a void of longer-term studies. We aimed to compare LT4 dosage 4 years followin...

We report the clinical history of a 21-years old young female who, in February 2021, presented abdominal pain and biliary vomiting that lasted for two months. An esophagus-gastroduodenoscopy revealed a duodenal ulcerative lesion and proton pump inhibitory therapy was started with clinical benefit. One month later, the patient presented a facial acneiform rush with hirsutism for which she was referred to our attention. An abdominal MRI documented a well-circumscribed hyper-vasc...

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), anticancer therapy blocking specific molecules expressed in tumor microenvironment, are associated to several endocrine side effects. In particular, the use of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors is related to a higher incidence of thyroid dysfunction. The most frequent form of thyrotoxicosis is a destructive thyroiditis, which can evolve into hypothyroidism.Patient findings:We report the case of an 85 years-old patient,...

Prolactin-secreting (PRL) adenomas are about 40% of all pituitary adenomas. The most important clinical symptoms of PRL excess are gonadal and sexual dysfunction as a result of tumor expansion in patients with macroadenomas. Medical therapy of prolactinomas relies on the use of dopamine agonists which induce normalization of PRL levels and shrinkage of the tumor mass in the majority of patients. The present study evaluated whether doses of dopamine agonist inducing normalizati...

Background: Temozolomide is an alkylating chemoterapic agent that ties a methyl to guanine, causing a base-pair mismatch and a DNA damage, resulting in cell death. Due to its lipophilic nature and its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, this drug was originally used for malignant gliomas and later for aggressive pituitary tumors and carcinomas. Temozolomide is now recommended as first-line chemotherapy by the recently published ESE Clinical Practice Guidelines. Here we p...

Introduction: Acromegalic heart disease is characterized by concentric left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and impaired LV function. Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) allows a non-invasive and reproducible study of myocardial strain, a marker of cardiac deformability and early ventricular systolic dysfunction.Objectives: The aims of the study are: 1) evaluation of STE parameters in acromegalic patients at diagnosis and during the follow-up; 2) apprai...

Objectives: The primary objective was to study the prevalence and the risk factors of vertebral fractures (VFs) in acromegaly patients either at diagnosis of acromegaly or during the follow-up. The role of routine chest radiography for detecting VFs in acromegaly was also evaluated.Design and methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed on 60 consecutive acromegaly patients, in a tertiary referral center. The presence of VFs was firstly evaluated ...

Introduction: Cushing’s Disease (CD) has been associated with the occurrence of psychopathologies, the most frequent of which are depression and anxiety. However, the extent of psychopathological disturbances of CD in the 21st century is elusive.Objectives: To explore psychopathologies and body image uneasiness (BIU) in untreated CD patients.Patients & methods: It was a prospective observational study enrolling 23 consecut...