Endocrine Abstracts

Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is a severe disease caused by an endogenous glucocorticoid excess and it is correlated to an increased morbidity and mortality especially for sepsis and cardiovascular diseases, while hypertension, glucose intolerance or diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia are the most common systemic complications. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the mortality and morbidity of patients with CS admitted at the Department of Endocrinology and Onc...

Cabergoline (CAB) was demonstrated to be effective in normalizing cortisol secretion in a subset of patients with Cushing’s disease (CD). The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of chronic treatment with CAB on clinical, metabolic and hormonal parameters in CD patients. Twenty-six patients with CD (11 males, 15 females, 12–72 years) entered the study. Patients were divided into two groups, responders and non responders, according to the achievement or not of ...

Women with acromegaly present often menstrual irregularity, anovularity and infertility. A direct role of GH and IGF1 excess on the hypothalamus–pituitary–gonadal axis, hyperprolactinemia and an impaired gonadotrophin secretion related to a tumor mass effect, or polycystic ovary syndrome have been suggested as possible mechanisms related to infertility. However, no systematic data are available on fertility in these patients. The aim of this retrospective study was t...

Somatostatin (SSTRs) and dopamine (DRs) receptors are expressed in adrenal tumors. It has been demonstrated in pituitary and neuroendocrine tumors that somatostatin-dopamine chimeric molecules, namely dopastatins, which bind both somatostatin (SST2 and/or SST5) and dopamine (D2) receptors, exert a more potent action compared with the single receptor agonists in experimental settings. The aims of this study were to evaluate the expression of DRs and SSTRs, and the effects of do...

The dopamine agonist cabergoline has been found to be effective in inducing normalization of cortisol secretion in 25–50% of patients with Cushing’s disease after long-term treatment. Moreover, tumor shrinkage have been documented in selected patients with pituitary corticotroph tumors. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of cabergoline withdrawal in patients with a stable normalization of cortisol secretion and stable or absent visualization of p...

Introduction: Cells with stem-like properties have been reported in benign and malignant thyroid diseases, and can be propagated by culturing them as non-adherent spheres.Design: Aim of the present study was to widely characterize the stem-like cells in tumor and normal thyroid tissues and in the corresponding in vitro-cultured thyrospheres, and to investigate in vivo the proangiogenic potential of thyrospheres in a zebrafish model....

Generously supported by IPSEN)-->Hyperprolactinemia is reportedly associated with impaired metabolic profile, particularly in patients with concomitant hypogonadism. The current study aimed at investigating the effects of 12 and 24 month-continuous cabergoline (CAB) treatment on metabolic profile in male hyperprolactinemic patients. Thirty-two men with prolactinomas, including 22 with testosterone < 8 nmol/l (HG, 69%) and 10 with...

Introduction: Generously supported by IPSEN)-->Hyperprolactinemia (HPRL) is associated with an impaired metabolic profile, particularly in patients with hypogonadism. This study aimed to: i) investigate the effects of short and long treatment with cabergoline (CAB) on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) and insulin sensitivity and ii) to evaluate the impact of gonadal function on metabolic changes, in male patients with HPRL.</...

Introduction: Generously supported by IPSEN)-->Glucocorticoids (GC) have a stimulatory effect on neutrophils and an inhibitory effect on the other leukocyte subpopulations. A potential stimulatory effect on erythropoiesis has been also hypothesized. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of pasireotide treatment on hemochrome parameters in patients with endogenous pituitary-dependent glucocorticoid excess or Cushing’s d...

Introduction: Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is a well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumor in which somatostatin receptor (sst) expression is higher for sst1 and sst5 than for sst2. This may explain why the available sst2–selective analogues do not work in these patients and why pasireotide (SOM230), a novel, multi-receptor targeted somatostatin analogue with high-binding affinity for sst1,2,3 and sst5 coul...