Mohsen Taghizadeh, Zatolla Asemi
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the effects of synbiotic food consumption on glycemic status and serum high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels of Iranian pregnant women. DESIGN: This randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial was performed among 52 pregnant women …
Spyridon N. Karras, William B.Grant, Declan P. Naughton, Kalliopi Kotsa
We read with interest the recent article by Katrinaki et al. The authors report on cross-sectional values of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations from a large Mediterranean cohort in Crete, Greece …
Atieh Amouzegar, Fereidoun Azizi
Objective: To assess variations of urinary iodine concentration (UIC) during a 4-week period among pregnant and non-pregnant women in an iodine-replete area. Design: Pregnant (in their first trimester of pregnancy) and non-pregnant women referred to two maternity hospitals in Tehran were consecutively recruited from September 2005 to March 2006 …
Effie Poulakou-Rebelakou, Costas Tsiamis, Spyros G. Marketos
In June of 2005 the term hormone completed a life span of one century. The word that Ernest Henry Starling included in one of his four lectures to the Royal Society of Physicians of London, given in June 1905, definitively established the permanent representation in terminology for the products secreted by the endocrine glands…
Theodoros D. Theodoridis, Leonidas Zepiridis, Menelaos Zafrakas, Grigoris Grimbizis, Antonios Tantsis, Dimitra Kyrou, John N. Bontis
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of a Levonorgestrel-releasing Intrauterine System (LNG-IUS) in controlling menorrhagia in comparison with endometrial thermal rollerball ablation. DESIGN: Seventy-nine consecutive patients with menorrhagia underwent either LNG-IUS insertion (n=42) or hysteroscopical endometrial thermal rollerball ablation (n=37) in a prospective, observational, comparative study …
Angeliki Krikri, Vasileios Alexopoulos, Emmanouil Zoumakis, Paraskevas Katsaronis, Evangelos Balafas, Gregory Kouraklis, Panagiotis E. Karayannacos, George P. Chrousos, Gregory Skalkeas
OBJECTIVE: Minimally invasive operations, such as laparoscopic cholecystectomy and adrenalectomy, result in a more rapid recovery of normal function, less physiological disturbances and less stress to the organism than similar open operations. The purpose of this study was to determine the stress response associated …
Snezana Polovina, Vera Popovic, Leonidas Duntas, Natasa Milic, Dragan Micic
OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to evaluate the relationship between the elevated TSH and fracture risk in postmenopausal women with subclinical hypothyroidism for evaluation of individuals with a high risk for osteoporotic fractures. DESIGN: FRAX score calculation (10-year estimated risk for bone fracture) …
Gerasimos P. Sykiotis, George D. Kalliolias, Christos Terezis, Athanasios G. Papavassiliou
In the homeland of Hippocrates, the study of the history and philosophy of medicine is remarkably infrequent among medical practitioners. It is excluded from the curricula of the majority of medical schools and from the hobbies and pastimes of most physicians and medical students…
David S. Cooper
An overview of long-term clinical consequences of TSH suppressive therapy provides evidence that serum TSH levels should be maintained at levels <0.1 mU/l in high-risk (stage III and IV) patients, whereas lower-risk patients should be allowed to have their TSH levels rise into the normal range after residual disease has been ruled out …
Athanasios Diamandopoulos, Pavlos Goudas, Demetra Patsy
Physicians and scholars of antiquity were well aware that the function of the testicles of humans and animals was not restricted to the production of sperm alone but that it was directly related to sexuality and secondary sexual characteristics. This concept was the natural conclusion of their observations on the macroscopical results of the removal of testicular tissue …
Christos Shammas, Stefania Byrou, Marie M. Phelan, Meropi Toumba, Charilaos Stylianou, Nicos Skordis, Vassos Neocleous, Leonidas A. Phylactou
OBJECTIVE: Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is an endocrine autosomal recessive disorder with various symptoms of diverse severity. Mild hyperandrogenemia is the most commonclinical feature in non-classic CAH patients and 95% of the cases are identified by mutations in the CYP21A2 gene. In the present study, the second most common cause for non-classic CAH (NC-CAH), 11β-hydroxylase deficiency due to mutations in the CYP11B1 gene, is investigated …
Evanthia Diamanti-Kandarakis, Evangelia Zapanti, Maria-Helen Peridis, Panayiotis Ntavos, George Mastorakos
Pheochromocytoma, a neuroendocrine tumor, is often associated with hyperglycemia. To investigate the underlying pathogenetic mechanisms, five patients (3 women and 2 men, aged 49±2.5, mean±SD) with benign adrenal pheochromocytoma were studied with an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and the euglycaemic clamp technique …
Ali A. Ghazi, Ali Mosaddegh Khah, Fereshteh Kamani, Khandan Zare, Alireza Sadeghipour, Mehdi Hedayati, Marjan Zarif Yeganeh, Treena Cranston, Ashley Grossman
Succinate Dehydrogenase-B (SDH-B) gene mutations constitute one of the most frequent forms of hereditary paragangliomas (PGL). Genetic study is advised in all cases for the evaluation of tumour behaviour, the selection of optimal management and the surveillance of the first degree relative …
Jana Phillips, Honey E. East, Sarah E. French, Eugen Melcescu, Robert D. Hamilton, William C. Nicholas, Jonathan F. Fratkin, Andrew D. Parent, Gustavo Luzardo, Christian A. Koch
INTRODUCTION: Malignant prolactinoma is an exceedingly rare endocrine tumor and cannot be diagnosed on histological grounds alone. Similarly to other neuroendocrine tumors such as pheochromocytoma, the mitoses index, Ki-67, p53, and others are utilized in helping understand …
Nicolas C. Nicolaides, Evangelia Charmandari
Glucocorticoids play a fundamental role in many physiologic functions and contribute substantially to the achievement of homeostasis. These pleiotropic glucocorticoid actions are mediated by a ubiquitously expressed transcription factor, the human glucocorticoid receptor (hGR), which may influence the transcription …
Napoleon Krikis, Konstantinos Tziomalos, Vasilios Perifanis, Sofia Vakalopoulou, Asterios Karagiannis, Vasilia Garypidou, Fedon Harsoulis
We report a patient with von Willebrand’ s disease who had had recurrent and life-threatening bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract. Despite extensive investigation, no apparent cause of haemorrhage was identified. He was successfully treated with combined administration of octreotide LAR (long-acting release) and propranolol. This is the first report on the successful use of octreotide LAR in a patient with von Willebrand’ s disease…
Ioannis Habeos, Venetsana Kyriazopoulou, Dionysios Chartoumpekis, Agathoklis Psyrogiannis
A 40-year old male residing in the Mediterranean region and afflicted with chronic pancreatitis and diabetes is presented. This is a case of chronic calcific non-alcoholic pancreatitis with characteristic intraductal calculi on abdominal X-ray. Five years following the initial episode of pancreatitis …
Andrew Collier, Sujoy Ghosh, Mario Hair, Iqbal Malik, Jim McGarvie
OBJECTIVE: Radioiodine therapy is the most commonly used therapy for patients with Graves’ disease (GD) in the United Kingdom. It is considered safe, effective and relatively inexpensive. The aim of our study was to examine the outcome of 131Iodine therapy in patients with GD when two different activities of 131Iodine were used …
Alexandra Chrisoulidou
I read with great interest the article by Yazici et al. on TSH/Tg ratio in the prediction of thyroid cancer. The justification for thyroid surgery in patients with thyroid nodules has led to many interesting studies looking into predictive markers, albeit without as yet concrete results that could alter the current practice …
Athanasios Fountas, Stelios Tigas, Zoe Giotaki, Dimitrios Petrakis, George Pentheroudakis, Agathocles Tsatsoulis
OBJECTIVE: Sunitinib is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor used in the therapy of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs), metastatic renal cancer and gastrointestinal stromal tumors. We describe a patient with PNET who presented with severe hypoglycemia following sunitinib administration …
Mara Boschetti, Massimo Casu, Sara Moretti, Claudia Teti, Valeria Albanese, Manuela Albertelli, Giovanni Murialdo, Francesco Minuto, Diego Ferone
OBJECTIVE: This prospective study aimed to evaluate the impact of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) on cardiac autonomic tone and on cardiovascular risk and the changes after 12 months of GH replacement therapy (GHRT). GHD is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality …
Ikki Sakuma, Jun Saito, Yoko Matsuzawa, Masao Omura, Seiji Matsui, Takamitsu Maehara, Naoki Hasegawa, Tetsuo Nishikawa
OBJECTIVE: We report a 44-year old man with ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) syndrome caused by bronchial carcinoid that developed Cushing syndrome. METHODS: We performed several imaging studies, including chest and abdominal CT, for exploration of nodules and selective pulmonary …
Fabio Rotondo, Angelo Rotondo, Mark Jentoft, Bernd W. Scheithauer, Luis V. Syro, Jorge H. Donado, James E. Tarara, Kalman Kovacs
OBJECTIVE: In pregnant women, the pituitary is enlarged and the prolactin (PRL) secreting cells increase in size and number. This PRL cell hyperplasia is associated with hyperprolactinemia. The aim of the present work was to investigate adenohypophysial vascularization and immunoexpression of vascular endothelial growth factor …
Marco Mendola, Alessia Dolci, Lanfranco Piscopello, Giustino Tomei, Dario Bauer, Sabrina Corbetta, Bruno Ambrosi
We describe a patient affected by Cushing’s disease due to the presence of double pituitary adenomas, one located within the anterior pituitary and the other in the infundibulum associated with a remnant of Rakthe’s pouch. Cure was achieved only after the infundibulum lesion was surgically removed …
Evelin Mingote, Tomás Meroño, Rocío Rujelman, Alejandra Marquez, Pia Fossati, Mirta Gurfinkiel, Marta Schnitman, Fernando Brites, Cristina Faingold, Gabriela Brenta
OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between thyroid profile and morbidity/mortality (MM) in hospitalized older patients. DESIGN: This is a retrospective study of patients over the age of 60yr admitted to the Dr. Cesar Milstein Hospital between 2009 and 2010 and who had thyroid function tests …