Andrea C. Gore
The central neuroendocrine systems are responsible for the control of homeostatic processes in the body, including reproduction, growth, metabolism and energy balance, as well as stress responsiveness. These processes are initiated by signals in the central nervous system, specifically the hypothalamus, and are conveyed first by neural and then by endocrine effectors …
Dimitrios S Papadogias, Polyzois Makras, Gregory A Kaltsas, John P Monson
Until the last decade, the diagnosis of GH deficiency (GHD) in adults was only considered as a marker of hypothalamo-pituitary disease. GHD in adults is now recognized as a specific clinical syndrome associated with a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors such as altered body composition with increased body fat, insulin resistance, adverse lipid profile, reduced physical performance …
Agathoklis Psyrogiannis, Venetsana Kyriazopoulou, Argiris Symeonidis, Michalis Leotsinidis, Apostolos G. Vagenakis
There are a few reports suggesting that subtle disturbances of iron metabolism are frequently found in patients with type 2 diabetes (DM2), but it is not known if these disturbances precede or accompany the diabetic state. We investigated the serum iron indices in 41 offspring of DM2 parents (group I) with normal glucose tolerance …
Dragana Miljic, Predrag Miljic, Mirjana Doknic, Sandra Pekic, Marina Djurovic, Milica Colovic, Vera Popovic
BACKGROUND: In rodents, Growth Hormone (GH) has been shown to stimulate coagulation parameters, including Prothrombin Time (PT), activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (aPTT) and vitamin K dependent coagulation factors. However, there are no reports on the influence of GH replacement therapy on global coagulation tests in Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD)…
Victoria Salem, Thomas G. Hopkins, Heba El-Gayar, Sagen Zac-Varghese, Anthony P. Goldstone, Jeannie F. Todd, Waljit Dhillo, Benjamin C.T. Field, Niamh Martin, Emma Hatfield, Mandy Donaldson, Fausto Palazzo, Karim Meeran, James Jackson, Tricia Tan
CONTEXT: Adrenal vein sampling (AVS) is recommended in all patients with hyperaldosteronism to whom surgery would be offered if the results indicated unilateral hypersecretion. OBJECTIVE: To assess the performance of AVS against radiological findings …
Gemma Sesmilo, Irene Halperin, Manuel Puig-Domingo
Brain injury (BI), both head trauma (TBI) and subarachnoid hemorrage (SAH), has consistently been recognized as an important cause of pituitary dysfunction.1 Different studies have estimated that 20-50% of patients who have suffered BI will develop some degree of hypopituitarism.1-9 The high incidence of BI ranks it as potentially the most important cause of hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction…
Spyridon N. Karras, Panagiotis Anagnostis, Andrea Petroczi, Cedric Annweiler, Declan P. Naughton, Dimitrios G. Goulis
Maternal hypovitaminosis D during pregnancy has been associated with a wide spectrum of adverse maternal and neonatal health outcomes, some manifesting stronger associations than others. Research in this field has entered the “era of systematic data evaluation” via the conducting of a series of meta-analyses in an attempt to synthesize …
Eleni Kousta, Asteroula Papathanasiou, Nicos Skordis
There have been considerable advances concerning understanding of the early and later stages of ovarian development; a number of genes have been implicated and their mutations have been associated with developmental abnormalities …
Georgios Valsamakis, Kostas Lois, Sudhesh Kumar, George Mastorakos
Insulin resistance is a key pathogenic defect of the clustered metabolic disturbances seen in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Metformin is an insulin sensitizer acting in the liver and the peripheral tissues that ameliorates the metabolic and reproductive defects in PCOS …
Barbara Jarzab, Daria Handkiewicz-Junak
Differentiated thyroid cancer (Dtc) is a rare disease, especially in children. Differences in the biology and clinical course of Dtc in children, when compared with adults, may be related both to pathogenesis as well as to clinical outcome of the disease. In childhood, the thyroid gland exhibits higher susceptibility to the carcinogenetic …
Maria Alevizaki, Ilpo Huhtaniemi
The pituitary glycoprotein hormones thyrotrophin (thyroid-stimulating hormone, TSH), lutrophin (luteinising hormone, LH) and follitrophin (follicle-stimulating hormone, FSH), as well as the placental choriongonadotrophin (human chorionic gonadotrophin, hCG) are composed of a common α-subunit and a specific β-subunit, coupled by noncovalent interactions …
Peter Laurberg, Stig Andersen, Inge Bülow Pedersen, Nils Knudsen, Allan Carlé
Although autoimmune hypothyroidism has generally been considered to be a disease that mainly develops because of genetic aberrations and for which adjustment of environment would bring about but slight risk modification, this understanding is increasingly appearing to be incorrect …
Vasiliki Skarpa, Eleni Κousta, Athanasia Tertipi, Konstantinos Anyfandakis, Marina Vakaki, Maria Dolianiti, Aspasia Fotinou, Asteroula Papathanasiou
OBSECTIVE: Chronic autoimmune thyroiditis (AT) is the most common cause of thyroid disease in children. The aim of the study was to define the epidemiological clinical and laboratory characteristics of children and adolescents with AT. DESIGN: Various parameters including thyroid ultrasonography of 228 children and adolescents …
Ze’ev Hochberg, Alan R Templeton
Evolutionary pressures due to variation in climate play an important role in shaping phenotypic variation among and within species and have been shown to influence variation in phenotypes such as body shape and size among humans. Here we review the evidence for migration and change of living latitude in the evolution of skin color genes and the vitamin D receptor (VDR) ..
Zoran Erlic, Hartmut P.H. Neumann
Pheochromocytomas and Paragangliomas (PGL) form the group of paraganglial tumours which can occur in any paraganglia from the skull base to the pelvic floor. The terminology is not uniform. While the World Health Organization (WHO) applies pheochromocytoma exclusively to adrenal tumours, many clinicians use the term pheochromocytoma also for extra-adrenal abdominal and thoracic tumours, since by tradition …
Foteini Economidou, Evangelia Douka, Marinella Tzanela, Serafeim Nanas, Anastasia Kotanidou
The metabolic support of the critically ill patient is a relatively new target of active research and little is as yet known about the effects of critical illness on metabolism. The nonthyroidal illness syndrome, also known as the low T3 syndrome or euthyroid sick syndrome, describes a condition characterized by abnormal thyroid function …
Evanthia Diamanti-Kandarakis, Dimitrios Tsilakis, Stefanos Lazarides, Helen Kandarakis, Angeliki Bergele
“Altius, citius, fortius”: higher, faster, stronger. These words from ancient times still today express the endeavour of athletes to beat records and gain victory. This endeavour has never been easy and becomes harder every day as the records climb higher. Many athletes are thus tempted to use artificial substances that enhance power, stamina and body structure…
Maria Bougoulia, Athanassios Triantos, George Koliakos
OBJECT IVE: T he aim of this study was to evaluate the levels of adipose tissue related hormones, cytokines, and antioxidative substances in obese women before and after intervention with diet alone or with diet plus an inhibitor of gastrointestinental lipase-orlistat…
Orsolya Nemes, Noemi Kovacs, Endre Czeiter, Peter Kenyeres, Zita Tarjanyi, Laszlo Bajnok, Andras Buki, Tamas Doczi, Emese Mezosi
OBJECTIVE: There is increasing awareness among physicians of the risks of traumatic brain injury (TBI)-induced hypopituitarism. We have assessed the prevalence and risk factors of post-traumatic hypopituitarism by analyzing the TBI database of the University of Pecs …
Franziska M. Hanusch, Evelyn Fischer, Katharina Lang, Sven Diederich, Stephan Endres, Bruno Allolio, Felix Beuschlein, Martin Reincke, Marcus Quinkler, for the participants of the German Conn’s Registry
OBJECTIVE: In subjects at high risk for sleep apnea (SA), aldosterone concentrations correlate with severity of SA and primary aldosteronism (PA) is very often diagnosed. Patients with PA show a high prevalence of SA. Treatment of PA either by adrenalectomy (ADX) or mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) blockade is thought to abolish …
George E. Christodoulakos, Irene V. Lambrinoudaki, Demetrios A. Rizos, Andreas Alexandrou, Apostolos V. Kountouris, George C. Creatsas
OBJECTIVE: The determinants of serum homocysteine in healthy postmenopausal women remain uncertain. The aim of this study was the assessment of the association of endogenous sex steroids with serum homocysteine levels in healthy postmenopausal women not on hormone therapy…
Jivka T. Ivanova, Polet B. Doukova, Mihail A. Boyanov, Plamen R. Popivanov
OBJECTIVE: the aim of this study was to search for a possible association of low bone mineral density (bMD) with the PvuII and XbaI polymorphisms of the estrogen receptor (Er) gene in bulgarian women. DESIGN: 400 bulgarian women participated in this study. bMD was mea-sured at the lumbar spine, femoral neck and at the distal forearm. two groups were identified …
Gerasimos Krassas, Spyridon N. Karras, Nikolaos Pontikides
The most common thyroid diseases during pregnancy are hyper- and hypothyroidism and their variants including isolated hypothyroxinemia (hypo-T4), autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) and different types of goiter. AITD represents the main cause of hypothyroidism during pregnancy ranging in prevalence between 5 and 20% …
Paloma Alonso-Magdalena, Ana Belιn Ropero, Sergi Soriano, Ivan Quesada, Angel Nadal
The aim of this review was to analyze the potential effects of environmental chemicals on homeostatic control related to glycemia and energy balance. Many of the environmental chemicals can mimic or interfere with the action of hormones and are generally referred to as “endocrine disruptors” …
Filippo Ceccato, Mattia Barbot, Marialuisa Zilio, Sergio Ferasin, Paola De Lazzari, Laura Lizzul, Marco Boscaro and Carla Scaroni
Objective: Measurement of cortisol levels in saliva is a marker of free hormone. How salivary cortisol rhythm is affected by age, gender, the metabolic syndrome and estrogen-progestin therapy was evaluated in a community sample of adults …