Minerva Endocrinologica

BACKGROUND: Metformin is the cornerstone of the pharmacological therapy for type 2 Diabetes (T2D). It belongs to the biguanide class of drugs and it improves hepatic insulin resistance and enhances GLP-1 and peptide YY secretion. Although being considered safe regarding hypoglycemic risk, renal dysfunction remains the main obstacle to its use due to the underlying risk of lactic acidosis. In the recent past many authors used creatinine values as the decisive marker when it came to choose between pharmacological agents in DM...

BACKGROUND: The role of inflammatory markers and adipokines contributing to the development of postmenopausal hypertension, has not been established. The aim of our study was to assess the complex association between blood pressure, obesity, menopausal status, adipokines and inflammatory mediators in postmenopausal women. METHODS: We recruited 38 women seen at our Endocrinology Clinic and collected anthropometric measures and blood pressure and obtained serum samples for inflammatory markers and adipokine levels...

INTRODUCTION: Oxidative stress has a key role in pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its complications as a most common health problem. Due to controversial evidence regarding the association between antioxidants' gene varients and T2DM, our aim was a systematic review of the current meta-analyses. EVIDENCE ACQUISTION: All meta-analysis' studies which assessed the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPX), glutathione S transferase (GST), nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase (NOX) with T2DM and its complications were systematically extracted from PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases up to January 2016...

BACKGROUND: The number of citations that an article has received reflects its impact on a particular research area. METHODS: We determined the 100 most-cited articles in thyroid research via the Institute for Scientific Information Web of Knowledge database, using the search term. The following parameters were used to analyze the characteristics of the 100 most-cited articles: publication year, journal (including subject category and impact factor), number of citations and annual citations, authors, department, institution, country, type of study, and topic...

The desire to reproduce is a base human instinct. However, for many individuals, the chances of being able to have a genetic child are compromised by a number of factors. For some, therapies aimed at treating serious medical illness, such as cancer; result in a deleterious impact on the function of eggs and sperm in the future thus compromising future fertility. In women, a predictable decrease in egg quality and quantity occurs with advancing maternal age. Therefore, women who choose to delay childbearing until their late 30s or early 40s may experience fertility difficulties that would not have been present earlier in life...

Human reproduction has always generated more than its share of emotion that exceeds the life and death issues of medicine. For patients that are unable to conceive naturally, medical advances have greatly expanded treatment options. Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is a highly evolving, complex, and controversial field of medicine in which ethical principles play a large role in decision-making. The following highlights ethical considerations regarding ART, specifically in vitro fertilization (IVF), that practicing obstetricians and indeed all physicians may encounter...

Current management of obesity includes three main arms: behavioral modification, pharmacologic therapy, and bariatric surgery. Decades prior, the only pharmacological agents available to treat obesity were approved only for short-term use (≤ 12 weeks) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, in the last several years, the FDA has approved several medications for longer term treatment of obesity. This highlights the important progression that we, as a society, better appreciate now the chronicity and complexity of obesity as a disease...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Since the first successful human in vitro fertilization (IVF) pregnancy nearly 40 years ago, remarkable progress has been made in assisted reproductive technology (ART). Improvements in oocyte retrieval, embryo culture, genetic screening, and embryo selection have contributed to dramatic improvements in IVF outcomes. A more robust understanding of embryologic development has driven innovation in not only the timing of embryo transfer but also the number of embryos to transfer. Additionally, overcoming the technical hurdle of embryo vitrification has given both physicians and patients several benefits including the flexibility to mitigate effects of superovulation on the endometrium, limit the number of embryos transferred, afforded an opportunity to screen the quality of embryos both by evaluating in vitro development as well as preimplantation genetic testing...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this paper is to explore the application and clinical significance of color Doppler ultrasound (CDU) in diagnosing lower extremity vascular disease in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. METHODS: The lower extremity arteries of 81 patients with T2DM and 50 control patients were examined by CDU for blood vessel diameter, intima-media thickness, plaque on the vessel wall, lumen stenosis and filling defect in blood flow. The occurrence of diabetes mellitus was investigated in additional T2DM patients of various ages...

BACKGROUND: The impact of single and combined interpretations of ultrasonography and sestamibi scintigraphy to select the appropriate surgical approach in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism were evaluated retrospectively. METHODS: A total of 183 patients with primary hyperparathyroidism who were evaluated preoperatively using both ultrasonography and sestamibi scintigraphy were included in the study. The results of preoperative localization studies were correlated with intraoperative findings and postoperative histopathological results...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Looking for strict normoglycemia in type 1 diabetes increases the risk of hypoglycemia, exposing to hypoglycemia unawareness. It has been shown that the early correction of hypoglycemia can help recovering the perception of hypoglycemia. The purpose of this prospective study was to assess the value of sensor-augmented insulin-pump therapy to treat hypoglycemia unawareness. METHODS: Eleven patients with type 1 diabetes and partial or total hypoglycemia unawareness received sensor-augmented insulin-pump therapy combined to the low blood glucose-suspend feature (Paradigm® Veo™ pump and Enlite® sensors) for three months...

The widespread perception of obesity as a non-communicable disease is slowly giving way to the view of a contagious, communicable and potentially fatal condition. The downstream comorbidities associated with it are endless. Hence, the slogan "Fat To Fit" is being promoted worldwide. The view of white adipose tissue as a fat storage organ is now shifting to an endocrine organ. The secreted hormones, called adipocytokines, act in an autocrine, paracrine, and endocrine fashion. Like other hormones, they can have a positive as well as a negative influence over the body...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is more common in men than in women. Thus, it has been suggested that sex steroids do have a role in the development of NAFLD. The aim of the current paper is to illustrate the association between NAFLD and hypogonadism, by reviewing data derived from both human and animal studies. The prevalence of NAFLD is high in men with hypogonadism, including those with idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (IHH), as well as in women in post-menopause, those under estrogen receptor antagonist treatment or women with Turner syndrome...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the hepatic manifestation of the metabolic syndrome and has a complex pathophysiology with multiple pathways of development and progression implicated. Intestinal hormones regulate multiple biological functions and may play a role in the pathogenesis of non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) by affecting food intake, body weight and insulin resistance. Bacterial products can affect the secretion of these hormones and thus have an effect on metabolism. Gut microbiota are normally involved in the intestinal energy harvest and their role has been increasingly been implicated in the pathogenesis of obesity and NAFLD...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Obesity and insulin resistance (IR) are frequently present in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Both disorders also play an important role in the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Accordingly, NAFLD is frequently present in patients with PCOS. In the present review, we summarize the findings of the major studies that assessed the prevalence of NAFLD in patients with PCOS. The factors driving the increased frequency of NAFLD in patients with PCOS are also analyzed. Finally, we discuss the management options of NAFLD in patients with PCOS...

The association of obesity with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been established. Obesity has been linked not only to initial stages of the disease, i.e., simple steatosis (SS), but also to its severity. From an epidemiologic point of view, both diseases has an increasing prevalence worldwide. From a pathogenetic point of view, obesity and its associate IR contribute to the initial fat accumulation in the hepatocyte (SS), but also to the progression of SS to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), NASH-related cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)...