Kerstin Hagemann, Maura Zanolari Calderari, Aurel Perren, Ian Cree, Primus E. Mullis, Christa E. Flück
Adrenocortical tumors are rare in children and present with variable signs depending on the type of hormone excess. We herein describe the unusual presentation of a child with adrenocortical tumor and introduce the concept of in vitro chemosensitivity testing. CASE REPORT: A 10.5-year-old girl presented with hypertrichosis/hirsutism and weight loss …
Aline Freitas-de-Melo, Juan Pablo Damián, Maria José Hötzel, Georgget Banchero, Rodolfo Ungerfeld
OBJECTIVE: In rodents, progesterone (P4) pretreatment increases anxiety and response to stressors. Social isolation is a stressor that generates physiological and behavioural stress responses in sheep. The aim of the study was to compare the stress response of anoestrous ewes previously treated or not with P4 to the social isolation test. DESIGN: Ten ewes received P4 treatment during 13 d (group P4-W) and another 10 remained untreated as controls (group Con) …
Massimo Salvatori, Giorgio Treglia, Germano Perotti, Luca Giovanella
Radioactive iodine (131I) is a radiopharmaceutical widely used in diagnosis and therapy of benign and malignant thyroid diseases. The possible risk of cancer induced by 131I administration is a topic widely debated in the literature …
Vasiliki Koika, Anastasia K. Armeni, Neoklis A. Georgopoulos
CASE PRESENTATION: A 36-year old man, operated on for cryptorchidism at the age of 8 years, was referred to the Outpatient Clinic of Reproductive Endocrinology for investigation of infertility. Clinical examination revealed ambiguous genitalia: penis 4-5 cm, testicular volume 2-3 ml, hypospadias, hypertrophic foreskin and scrotum bifida. Mild hypertension was confirmed. No skeletal malformations were detected …
Georgios K. Markantes, Anastasia Theodoropoulou, Anastasia K. Armeni, Vasiliki Vasileiou, Constantine A. Stratakis, Neoklis A. Georgopoulos
Giant is a term used to describe a legendary humanlike being of great stature and strength. In Greek mythology, the giants Cyclopes rebelled against the Olympian Gods in a battle that ended in their final defeat, this resulting in Olympian sovereignty on earth …
Penelope Trimpou, Daniel S. Olsson, Olof Ehn, Oskar Ragnarsson
OBJECTIVE: Diabetes insipidus (DI) and primary polydipsia (PP) are characterised by polyuria and polydipsia. It is crucial to differentiate between these two disorders since the treatment is different. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of the short and an extended variant of the water deprivation test (WDT) and of measuring urinary vasopressin (AVP) in patients with polyuria and polydipsia.
DESIGN: A retrospective, single-centre study based on WDTs performed …
Olga Karapanou, Barbara Vlassopoulou, Marinella Tzanela, Dimitrios Papadopoulos, Panagiotis Angelidakis, Helen Michelakakis, George Ioannidis, Markos Mihalatos, Smaragda Kamakari, Stylianos Tsagarakis
We present the clinical and hormonal findings of a young male with X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD), with special emphasis on the biochemical and clinical pattern of hypogonadism. A patient, with primary adrenal insufficiency since the age of 5 years, developed progressive neurological symptoms at the age of 29 …
Labrini Papanastasiou, Stelios Fountoulakis, Theodora Pappa, Konstantinos Liberopoulos, Dimosthenis Malliopoulos, Athina Markou, George Piaditis
OBJECTIVE: Dopamine agonists (DA) are the treatment of choice in patients with macroprolactinomas. Brain and optic chiasm herniation are unusual complications following treatment with DA. REPORT: We present a case of a giant prolactinoma complicated by visual deterioration following cabergoline treatment …
Ozan M. Demir, Stavroula A. Paschou, Huw Christopher Ellis, Michael Fitzpatrick, Andreas S Kalogeropoulos, Andrew Davies, Jeremy Thompson, Simon W. Davies, Julia Grapsa
The following case presents a new insight into the relationship of glucagonomas with dilated cardiomyopathy which endocrinologists should be aware of. A 64-year old Caucasian man, born and raised in Zimbabwe, was admitted with acute pulmonary edema …
Evaggelia Zapanti, Aikaterini Polonifi, Michalis Kokkinos, George Boutzios, Georgia Kassi, Narjes Nasiri Ansari, Eva Kassi, Aris Polyzos
PURPOSE: Inactivating mutations of the calcium-sensing receptor (CASR) gene cause familial hypocalciuric hypercalcaemia (FHH). Here we report three siblings with FHH caused by a novel mutation in the CASR. METHODS: The case subject was a 60-year-old patient referred because of mild hypercalcaemia …
Guo-li Du, Zhong-hua Liu, Min Chen, Rui Ma, Sheng Jiang, Miriguli Shayiti, Jun Zhu, Aibibai Yusufu
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical and hormonal characteristics of patients with Sheehan’s syndrome in Xinjiang, China. METHODS: 97 cases diagnosed as Sheehan’s syndrome in our hospital from 1999 to 2013 were retrospectively reviewed …
Anastasia P. Athanasoulia, Günter K. Stalla, Matthias K. Auer
BACKGROUND: Leydig cell hypoplasia is a rare autosomal recessive condition that interferes with the normal development of male external genitalia in 46,XY individuals. It is mediated by mutations in the lutropin/choriogonadotropin receptor gene, resulting in the impairment of either the binding of hormone or signal transduction …
Theodora Pappa, Labrini Papanastasiou, Athina Markou, Ioannis Androulakis, George Kontogeorgos, Andreas Seretis, George Piaditis
Emre Gezer, Banu Şarer Yurekli, Gokçen Unal Kocabas
Hypokalemic periodic paralysis (HPP) is a rare neuromuscular disorder caused by dysfunction of the ion channels in red muscle cells and which is characterized by painless episodes of muscle weakness generally after strenuous exertion or a high-carbohydrate meal …
Shabana Valiji Bharmal, Veronica Moyes, Sahid Ahmed, Ashley Grossman
Drugs are the commonest cause of hypoglycaemia in patients without diabetes mellitus. However, in spite of this, a recent review highlighted the poor quality of evidence available supporting the association between numerous drugs and hypoglycaemia …
Amirhosein Khoshi, Alireza Sirghani, Mehran Ghazisaeedi, Ali Zarei Mahmudabadi, Amir Azimian
OBJECTIVE: Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is defined as high levels of TSH in the presence of normal levels of serum FT4. Since thyroid peroxidase (TPO) plays a key role in thyroid hormone synthesis, variations in the TPO gene can change the enzyme structure and result in the production of anti-TPO antibodies. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the Asn698Thr (A2095C) and Thr725Pro (A2173C) polymorphisms of the TPO gene and anti-TPO levels in patients with SCH …
Ilias-Dimitrios Kafetzis, Antonis Diamantopoulos, Ioannis Christakis, Basileios Leoutsakos
Greep in 1963 as well as Pang and Epple in 1980 advanced the view that the parathyroids originally appeared 100 million years ago, in the context of the evolutionary development of amphibians. This coincided with the transition of life from the calcium-rich marine environment to the terrestrial or the aquatic environments …
Ioannis Kyrou, Aimilia Christou, Demosthenes Panagiotakos, Charikleia Stefanaki, Katerina Skenderi, Konstantina Katsana, Constantine Tsigos
OBJECTIVE: The Humulus lupulus L. plant (hops) is used as a herbal medicinal product for anxiety/mood disorders. Our aim was to study the effects of a hops dry extract on self-reported depression, anxiety and stress levels in young adults. DESIGN: Apparently healthy young adults from our university completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) and those reporting at least mild depression …
Carlos del Pozo, Luis García-Pascual, Montserrat Balsells, María-José Barahona, Enrique Veloso, Clarisa González, Jordi Anglada-Barceló
Parathyroid carcinoma is an infrequent cause of primary hyperparathyroidism. Although hyperparathyroidism in multiple endocrine neoplasia 1 (MEN1) syndrome is the most common manifestation, parathyroid carcinoma is rare. We report a male patient who was diagnosed at 44 years of age with parathyroid carcinoma in the context of MEN1 syndrome coincident …
Giorgio Radetti, Heba H. Elsedfy, Randa Khalaf, Cristina Meazza, Sara Pagani, Mohamed El Kholy, Riccardo Albertini, Anna Maria De Stefano, Antonella Navarra, Annalisa De Silvestri, Mauro Bozzola
OBJECTIVE: Provocative stimulation tests for growth hormone (GH) assessment have poor reproducibility and can often elicit false positive results in normal children. The aim of our study was to confirm the capability of pegvisomant as an enhancer of GH secretion in unmasking false-positive results in short children (height <-2.0 standard deviation score, SDS) undergoing GH testing ...
Andres A. Roma
It was with great interest that we read the paper titled Adrenal cortical oncocytoma mimicking pheochromocytoma by Kiriakopoulos A. et al published in the first issue of 2011 of the Journal. A few months later, we were puzzled by a very similar case …
Anna Angelousi, Nikolaos Settas, Fabio R. Faucz, Charalampos Lyssikatos, Martha Quezado, Narjes Nasiri-Ansari, Constantine A. Stratakis, Eva Kassi
Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a neuroendocrine tumor hereditary in 35% of cases. The most common syndromic form is in the context of the multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN 2) syndromes in association with other tumors and due to germline RET mutations. We describe a 57-year-old female patient diagnosed with sporadic MTC …
Ioannis Ilias, Filio Spanoudi, Eftychia Koukkou, Stamatina C. Nikopoulou
The creators of the FRAX fracture risk calculator for countries with no national reference values (such as Greece) suggest the use of FRAX from a neighboring country. For Greeks (considered to run a high risk for osteoporotic fractures) …
Rafael Denadai, Luίs Ricardo Martinhão Souto
We read with interest the review article by Ibrahim and Fadeyibi and have the following comments regarding the evaluation of lesions in ectopic thyroid. Although the authors point out that fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is important when malignancy is suspected …
Alexandra Efthymiadou, Eunice G. Stefanou, Dionisios Chrysis
45,X/46,XY mosaicism is associated with a broad spectrum of phenotypes ranging from apparently normal male development to individuals with incomplete sexual differentiation and clinical signs of Turner syndrome in both males and females. The most common presentation among individuals …