Minerva Endocrinologica

INTRODUCTION: Acromegaly is a rare disease caused by excess growth hormone (GH) secretion leading to an excess IGF-1 which is the major mediator of GH action. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: Biochemical diagnosis of GH excess is accomplished by the combined measurement of baseline serum IGF-I concentration and the response of GH on an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Several drawbacks regarding the interpretation of biochemical tests that include measurement of GH have been widely described in the literature, including different protocols for obtaining serum samples, great differences in the results obtained by different immunoassays, different cut-off points used to differentiate the normal status of the hypersecretion of GH...

AIM: To identify the main predictors of the enlargement of ascending aorta and to assess the possible relation between reduced bone mineral density and a diameter of ascending aorta in the specific Turner syndrome (TS) population. METHODS: 50 adult females diagnosed with TS have been enrolled into the cross-sectional study. Dimensions of ascending aorta have been measured in four positions using thoracic magnetic resonance imaging, aortic size index (ASI) has been calculated...

BACKGROUND: Earlier research on 1 μg low-dose test (LDT) performed using 20.3 cm plastic IV tubing on healthy volunteers, has shown that afternoon testing was associated with a sevenfold increased likelihood of failing the test. Nevertheless, it has been claimed that subnormal cortisol response using plastic tubes might have resulted from cosyntropin adherence to the tube and, thus, loss of the delivered dosage. Following from our previous study, which showed that using a short (2.5 cm) plastic tube does not alter in-vitro-cosyntropin dosage delivery or healthy-volunteers' morning cortisol responses, we predicted that, when using the same short plastic tube, LDT would show comparable morning and afternoon cortisol stimulation...

BACKGROUND: Solitary thyroid nodules are the most common endocrine occurance in general population. With the introduction of Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytopathology (BSRTC) to FNA specimens we found a reliable standard method to evaluate malignancy risk in thyroid neoplasms. This study evaluates the correlation between BSRTC and real results in our center investigating the role of several factors as confounding factors for cytological diagnosis. The study has been designed as a retrospective study conducted on 637 patients that underwent thyroid surgery in a single center (General Surgery Unit, Parma University Hospital, Italy)...

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INTRODUCTION: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare cancer, with an incidence less than 0.7-1.5 per 1 million people per year, with a poor prognosis. The overall survival (OS) depens on the ENSAT stage: in particular in metastatic ACC the OS varies between 10 and 20 months, with a 5-yrs survival around 10%. ACC present a different behaviour, probably due to a different biology. For these reason a careful prognostic classification is mandatory, in order to stratify the patients and purpose a specific management...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

TSH receptor antibodies (TRAbs) are characteristic indicators for the common autoimmune thyroid disease Graves disease (GD). In almost all patients stimulating TRAbs are found leading to hyperthyroidism as these antibodies act in an agonistic manner to TSH. Besides stimulating TRAbs, other TRAbs are also frequently found leading to inhibition of TSH receptor signaling (blocking TRAbs) or to the activation of different signaling cascades resulting in e.g. thyrocyte apoptosis (cleavage antibodies). Patients' sera may contain all three types of TRAbs...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this project was to investigate the expression and clinical significance of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and the transforming growth factor-α (TGF-α) in the occurrence and development of chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. METHODS: We recruited 31 patients with chronic pancreatitis, 42 with pancreatic cancer, and 20 with normal pancreas in our hospital. Chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, and normal pancreas expressed EGF and TGF-α mRNAs as well as EGF and TGF-α proteins...

Clinical endocrinology has always had a close relationship with laboratory medicine. In fact, the quantification of hormones is of great importance for diagnosis, treatment, recurrence and patient's prognosis of endocrine disorders. This review dealt with the role of the laboratory in diagnosing endocrine pathologies related to adrenal gland, pituitary, gonads and thyroid. The measurements of the main hormones (17-hydroxyprogesterone, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate, testosterone, estradiol, cortisol, aldosterone, metanephrines, thyroglobulin and insulin-like-growth factor-1) were described considering analytical characteristics but also some aspects of preanalytical and postanalytical steps...

The endocrine system is interested by several autoimmune diseases, characterized by different impact and severity, according to the organs involved. Autoimmune thyroid disorders (i.e. Hashimoto's thyroiditis and Graves' disease) and type 1 diabetes mellitus are the most common autoimmune endocrine disorders, while hypophysitis, adrenalitis (90% of cases of primary hypocortisolism or Addison's disease), POF and hypoparathyroidism represent quite rare conditions. Autoimmune endocrine diseases can also coexist in the same individuals and cluster in families...

Cytology is an easily-accessible, cost-effective, and safe procedure for the initial evaluation of most endocrine/neuroendocrine lesions. Both fine-needle aspiration cytology and exfoliative cytology have shown good sensitivity and specificity in detecting endocrine/neuroendocrine benign proliferations and malignancies. Thanks to its utility for early diagnosis, cytology has contributed to the decline in mortality of endocrine/neuroendocrine neoplasms. The endocrine system comprises different endocrine organs, such as the thyroid, adrenal glands, paraganglia, parathyroid, pancreas, hypothalamus, pituitary gland, ovaries and testes, which can give rise to non-neoplastic, benign and malignant proliferations...

Positron emission tomography (PET) is an established imaging method in oncology. PET/computed tomography (PET/CT) and PET/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) are hybrid techniques which combine morphological information obtained by CT and MRI with functional data provided by PET. Several PET radiotracers evaluating different metabolic pathways or receptor status can be used to assess endocrine tumors such as thyroid tumors or neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs). This review is focused to describe the role of PET imaging using different radiotracers in patients with thyroid tumors and NENs...

Application of distinct technologies of cancer genome analysis has provided important information for the molecular characterization of several human neoplasia, including follicular cell-derived thyroid carcinoma. Among them, comparative genomic hybridization (CGH)-based procedures have been extensively applied to evaluate genomic imbalances present in these tumours, obtaining data leading to an increase in the understanding of their complexity and diversity. In this review, after a brief overview of the most commonly used CGH-based technichs, we will describe the major results deriving from the most influential studies in the literature which used this approach to investigate the genomic aberrations of thyroid cancer cells...

Ultrasound examination has become essential to evaluate morphology and size of several endocrine glands and detect the presence of lesions within these organs. Nevertheless, with the recent advances of ultrasound technology, we have opportunity to correlate the echostructure of thyroid, ovary, testis, parathyroids, etc. to their function. Thus, the ultrasound systems are in-office essential instruments for many clinical specialists. Herein we presented the most updated information about the use of ultrasound in specific endocrine-related issues, such as thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal gland, and testicle...