Endocrine Abstracts

Diffuse idiopathic pulmonary neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia (DIPNECH) is a relatively recent and rare disease, frequently misdiagnosed. It is characterized as a generalized proliferation of pulmonary neuroendocrine cells and is recognized as a precursor lesion for pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors, although the risk of progression to malignancy is considered low. Here we report a patient with ectopic ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome due to metastatic lung carcinoid tumors...

Introduction: Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease with a prevalence of 0.6 to 4.8%. Among the possible treatments, we highlight topic corticosteroids that can cause not only different local side effects (skin fragility and atrophy, striae, purpura, acne, telangiectasia, hypertrichosis) but also systemic side effects, including diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HT), Cushing’s syndrome and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HHA) axis suppression.<p class="abs...

Liver-expressed antimicrobial peptide 2 (LEAP-2) has been recently characterized as an endogenous GHSR1a antagonist. LEAP-2 is produced mainly in the liver, and it was described that an acute ghrelin administration blocks food intake, GH release and normalize glucose levels during chronic caloric restriction. For this reason, it could be considered as a key endocrine factor in the regulation of systemic energy metabolism. Nevertheless, the exact mechanism of action is still un...

Introduction: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is currently believed to be the most frequent form of secondary endocrine hypertension, accounting for 5–10% of all hypertensive patients. After confirming the diagnosis, adrenal venous sampling (AVS) is considered the most accurate means of distinguishing between unilateral and bilateral adrenal disease.Case report: Female patient, 36 years-old, referred to an Endocrinology appointment in May 2009 due to lef...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare tumour with a poor prognosis. There are a lack of successful targeted therapies and an urgent need to explore novel therapeutic avenues for ACC 1. In other cancer types, there has been some success in exploiting lipid metabolism. One example is manipulating intracellular cholesterol levels to starve cancer cells. 2 Another possibility is targeting the ligand-dependent nuclear receptors Liver-X receptors (LXRab), wh...

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...

Background: Alstrom syndrome (AS; OMIM#203800) is a rare (<1:100.000) autosomal recessive monogenic ciliopathy and it is caused by mutations in ALMS1 (chromosome 2p13), which function is still unknown. AS is characterized by multisystemic fibrosis, cone-rod retinal dystrophy leading to blindness, hearing loss, obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), dilated cardiomyopathy, and progressive hepatic and renal failure. Most patients present neurological issue on developmenta...

Prostate cancer (PCa) is driven by the androgen receptor (AR) signalling axis and begins with prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN), progressing to invasive adenocarcinoma and eventually metastatic disease. It is treated with androgen deprivation therapies, to which, in late-stage disease, tumours often become resistant and proliferation occurs in a low androgen environment. Mutation of the PTEN tumour suppressor gene is found in approximately 30% of primary human prostate...

Introduction: Sarcoidosis is a systemic granulomatous disease of unknown etiology with a prevalence of 10–20/100 000 individuals and affects mainly young adults. Neurological involvement occurs in about 5% of the cases and it can affect the hypothalamic–pituitary axis. In this case, the most common endocrine manifestations are hyperprolactinemia and diabetes insipidus.Case report: A 44-year-old male patient complaining of not feeling well and d...

Introduction: Obesity has been associated with increased androgenicity in women, however there are conflicting data on this subject. Objectives: To determine whether any androgen is independently related to body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) or age. To access if there is an association between elevated plasma androgen levels and the presence of either morbid obesity or metabolic syndrome (MS).Design and Methods: A total of 148 obese women we...