Dimitrios Galaris, Michalis Mantzaris, Christos Amorgianiotis
According to the free radical theory of aging proposed by Denham Harman more than 50 years ago, oxidatively modified cellular components accumulate continuously in the cells during the organism’s lifespan leading to progressive decline of cellular functions. Since then, it has been shown that proteins, lipids, nucleic acids and other cell components undergo reversible and/or irreversible oxidative modifications during aging …
Lampros Fotis, Dionysios Giannakopoulos, Lela Stamogiannou, Maria Xatzipsalti
In 1995 David Barker formulated the ‘Barker hypothesis’ according to which there is a correlation between undernutrition in utero and several diseases in adult life. More specifically, undernutrition in utero permanently affects the vascular bed, resulting in a predisposition to diseases later on …
Sílvia Paredes, Claudia Matta-Coelho, Ana Margarida Monteiro, Alice Brás, Olinda Marques, Marta Alves, Laura Ribeiro
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the cardiovascular effect of antidiabetic drugs are today critical medical issues, with the prevalence of T2DM in particular showing a steep increase worldwide, mainly due to unhealthy lifestyle habits. T2DM in association with obesity and other cardiovascular risk factors, results in the development of CVD, the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with T2DM …
Eustratios V. Gotzaridis, Athina Markou, Zdenek Gregor
Patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus experience a high incidence of severe ocular complications and are more likely to have significant ocular problems during their lifetimes. Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2), however, make up the majority of clinical cases with diabetic eye disease because of the higher incidence of DM2…
Evangelia Zapanti, Konstantinos Terzidis, George Chrousos
Abnormalities of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis have been documented in HIV patients in the early as well as late stages of the infection and range from subtle subclinical disturbances to frank adrenal insufficiency. Potential etiologies of these disorders include opportunistic infections, neoplasms …
Hesham Fahmy, Katerina Spyridaki, Bhimanna Kuppast, George Liapakis
The maintenance of homeostasis is a basic prerequisite for life, ensuring the stability of our body in response to external or internal stimuli (stressful stimuli). The maintenance of homeostasis requires alterations in the function of the endocrine system …
Marina Michalaki, Panagiotis Bountouris, Nikolaos D Roupas, Anastasia Theodoropoulou, Niki Agalianou, Theodoros Alexandrides, Kostas Markou
BACKGROUND: The current trend in the management of low risk differentiated thyroid carcinoma is to follow less aggressive strategies. Objective: To assess the long-term morbidity and mortality outcomes of low-risk papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients undergoing minimal intervention. DESIGN: We retrospectively analyzed 137 patients with low-risk PTC …
Sofia Kitsiou-Tzeli, Aggeliki Kolialexi, Ariadni Mavrou
Microdeletions, translocations or other rearrangements of chromosomal region 22q11.2 have been reported in association with >80 different birth defects and malformations occurring in many combinations and with widely differing severity…
Athina Kaprara, Gerasimos E. Krassas
The relation of thyroid autoimmunity to miscarriage is an important issue that has attracted the interest of many investigators. A number of papers have been published so far, which include healthy women, women with recurrent miscarriage and those undergoing assisted reproductive techniques. Most studies have shown a significant positive association between the presence of thyroid autoantibodies and miscarriage rate…
Nikolaos Pontikides, Spyros Karras, Athina Kaprara, Angeliki Cheva, Argyrios Doumas, Dimitrios Botsios, Aris Moschidis, Elias Efthimiou, John Wass, Gerasimos E. Krassas
BACKGROUND: Parathyroid cysts (PC) are uncommon entities in routine clinical practice. The vast majority are nonfunctioning and are commonly present as asymptomatic nodular cervical lesions. PC should be considered in the differential diagnosis of an asymptomatic neck mass …
Anastasia Markaki, Emmanuel Psylinakis, Aspasia Spyridaki
Adiponectin (ADPN) is an adipokine with significant anti-inflammatory, insulin-sensitizing and anti-atherogenic properties, which is generally associated with a beneficial cardiometabolic profile. Paradoxically, end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is characterized by markedly increased plasma ADPN levels and increased cardiovascular risk. In spite of the cardioprotective properties …
Lambrini Gouva, Agathocles Tsatsoulis
The effects of estrogens on reproductive tissues and climacteric symptoms are unambiguous. However, their effects on other tissues and, in particular, the cardiovascular system remain controversial. In general, premenopausal women are protected from coronary heart disease (CHD) compared with aged-matched men but this `female protection’ appears to be lost after menopause, suggesting beneficial effects of female sex hormones on the cardiovascular system…
Friedhelm Raue, Karin Frank-Raue
Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN2) is an autosomal dominant tumour syndrome caused by germline activating mutations of the RET proto-oncogene. It has a strong penetrance of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) and can be associated with bilateral pheochromocytoma and primary hyperparathyroidism (MEN2A) within a single patient or family…
Yuji Hiromatsu, Hiroshi Satoh, Nobuyuki Amino
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT), a common thyroid disease, is now recognized as an autoimmune thyroid disorder (AITD). However, surprisingly little is known about its discoverer, Hakaru Hashimoto, who first described the disease in 1912 …
Sarah M. Creighton
In contemporary management of the infant with ambiguous genitalia assigned to a female gender surgery plays a central role. Once the infant is assigned to a female sex of rearing, feminising genital surgery almost always follows in an attempt to restore normality. This management is now being challenged by adult patients and other medical …
Peter D. Papapetrou
The adverse events of the nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates are reviewed. Oral bisphosphonates (alendronate, risedronate and ibandronate), mainly used for the treatment of osteoporosis, have been associated with adverse events from the upper gastrointestinal tract …
Dimitrios Panidis, Konstantinos Tziomalos, Efstathios Papadakis, Eleni A. Kandaraki, Ilias Katsikis
In 2007, the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) issued guidelines in Thessaloniki regarding the use of metformin and clomiphene for the induction of ovulation in patients with anovulatory polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) …
Marko Kaleva and Jorma Toppari
Testicular descent is an essential part of normal male sexual development. Any anomaly that disrupts normal testicular descent will be clinically evident as cryptorchidism. Several factors, such as Hoxa-10, epidermal growth factor (EGF), calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), and hormones, especially androgens and insulin-like factor 3
Christopher Reiners
There is no evidence that natural radiation (cosmic radiation or from natural radioiosotopes) increases the risk for thyroid diseases. Moreover, while it has been proven that exposure to external medical radiation or to external and internal radiation by atomic bomb explosions leads to an increased risk for thyroid cancer …
Menelaos L. Batrinos
The ovaries follow a different course of aging from the other endocrine glands and organs. Instead of an inevitable progressive deterioration with advancing age, like all other structures and functions of the organism, including the male gonad, the testis, in the late thirties the ovaries undergo an abrupt diminution …
Demetrios A. Koutras
Endocrinologists not infrequently confront the problem of inconsistent blood values of thyroxine among patients receiving L-thyroxine preparations. The question is how universal this problem is …
Grigorios Kotronoulas, Antonios Stamatakis, Fotini Stylianopoulou
Sleep is an essential ubiquitous biological process, a periodical state of quiescence in which there is minimal processing of sensory information and no interaction with conspecifics or the environment. Despite relevant research on sleep structure and testing of numerous endogenous sleep-affecting chemicals, questions as to the precise mechanisms …
Georgios Boutzios, John Griniatsos, Nikoletta Dimitriou, Athanassios Zilos, Stavroula Antoniou, Evangelos Felekouras, Gregory Kaltsas
OBJECTIVE: Gastric neuroendocrine neoplasms Type 1 (GEN type 1) are mostly localized indolent tumors, with only a minority developing lymph node or distant metastasis. Although they are usually managed conservatively, large, invasive, recurrent and grade 2 lesions may require surgical treatment …
Christine Spitzweg, John C. Morris
Active transport of iodide into the thyroid gland is a crucial and rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of thyroid hormones which play an important role in the metabolism, growth and maturation of a variety of organ systems, in particular the nervous system1. Although, iodide transport into the thyroid gland has been known …
Maria I. Argyropoulou, Dimitrios Nikiforos Kiortsis
Magnetization transfer (MT) techniques provide tissue contrast which depends mainly on the concentration of macromolecules. The magnetization transfer phenomenon is determined by the restricted macromolecular protons and is quantified by the magnetization transfer ratio (MTR). Since many macromolecular structures are implicated in the secretory activity of the pituitary gland …