Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Prediction of HPA (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal) activity after trans-sphenoidal pituitary surgery (NS) is essential for post-operative management. There is not unique behavior in this setting: most of specialists suggests 4-6 weeks of glucocorticoid supplementation and treatment interruption after demonstration of normal endogenous response. Some authors suggest early cortisol detection for the identification of patients requiring glucocorticoid therapy. Aim o...

Background: PREDIRCAM2 is a web platform for obesity treatment and follow-up. It contains modules for: dietary prescription and registry with nutritional analysis based on individualized and mediterranean dietary goals, physical activity prescription and tracking with individualized targets, and anthropometric tracking. An ongoing multicenter randomized clinical trial evaluates the intervention’s effectiveness in obesity treatment and cardio-metabolic-risk prevention....

Context: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a common endocrine disease, characterized by the chronic elevation of serum calcium (Ca) levels induced by a long-standing increase of PTH concentrations. PHPT includes mild-asymptomatic and symptomatic forms. Cinacalcet is effective in lowering serum Ca levels in PHPT, but is indicated solely in mild-asymptomatic PHPT meeting surgery criteria. Management of non-surgical mild-asymptomatic PHPT is still a debated issue.<p class...

Introduction: Betablockers are not a first-line antihypertensive therapy, although they have specific cardiological indications. The use of betablockers, especially the non-selective ones, may be associated with paradoxical hypertension, due to unopposed alpha-adrenergic peripheral vasoconstriction.Methods: Review of the patient’s Clinical Record and of the relevant literature.Results: Clinical Case: A 66 year old woman was r...

Introduction: Adrenal insufficiency requires life-long glucocorticoid replacement. Conventional therapies fail to mimic endogenous cortisol circadian rhythm. Clock genes are essential components of the molecular machinery controlling organ’s circadian function and are influenced by glucocorticoids. However, clock genes expression has never been investigated in patients with adrenal insufficiency (AI).Aim: To evaluate the effect of the timing of gluc...

Background: So far, guidelines for bariatric surgery do no recommend the universal screening for thyroid diseases, except the TSH measurement in selected patients. However, a possible interplay between obesity (possibly complicated by obesity-related comorbidities) and thyroid diseases has been postulated.Objective: Aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of thyroid diseases in a cohort of obese patients, evaluated for bariatric surgery. Metho...

BackgroundDiabetic nephropathy complicated by albuminuria along with low estimated glomerular filtrate rate (eGFR) are a typical feature of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) and it’s related to a significant increase in mortality and chronic complications in diabetic patients However, data from the literature are still not conclusive regarding the direct association between albuminuria and risk of amputation for ischemic limb vascular disease, in diabetic patie...

Germline mutations in BRAF and other components of the RAS/MAPK pathway are found in RASopathies, whose features include short stature and pubertal delay. The underlying mechanism of endocrinopathies in RASopathies has not been fully elucidated. We report four BRAF mutations (two of which are novel) in four children with congenital hypopituitarism and RASopathy features. To demonstrate the functional role of the variants we performed phosphoproteomic analyses...

Over the last two years, COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown have exerted a remarkable psychological burden in the general population. Such an impact is supposed to be even worse in acromegaly, known to induce a severe psychological impairment due to its somatic disfigurements and systemic comorbidities. The current observational study aimed at investigating the impact of COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown on psychological health in acromegalic patients as compared to non-acromegalic h...

Beyond the huge impact on physical health, coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) epidemic represents a significant psychological stressor, causing effects on mental health. The psychological distress of the epidemic and consequent mass quarantine on patients with hypocortisolism, particularly frail and vulnerable to infections and stress, is unknown. The current multicentre, web-survey-based, case-control study evaluated the psychological impact of COVID-19 quarantine in a large c...