In this issue, Savage et al., summarize and discuss their data and those of the literature on the growth management of pediatric patients with Cushing’s disease. Endogenous Cushing’s syndrome is rare in all ages and children and adolescents represent about 10 percent of the total …
Issue 2 (April-June)22
Macroprolactinemia: an unnoticeable factor
Hyperprolactinemia most commonly results from physiologic or pathologic conditions that cause hypersecretion of PRL by lactotroph cells. Physiologic causes include pregnancy and lactation while pathologic hyperprolactinemia may result from a lactotroph adenoma or from several readily identifiable causes that may interfere with normal dopamine inhibition of PRL secretion. However, in some patients whose serum PRL …
Growth and growth hormone secretion in paediatric Cushing’s disease
Martin O. Savage, Helen L. Storr, Ashley B. Grossman, Gerasimos E. Krassas
Although paediatric Cushing’s disease is rare, it is associated with severe morbidity in childhood and presents a major diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for the paediatric endocrinologist. Growth failure remains an important feature of paediatric Cushing’s disease, both at diagnosis and after successful treatment. However, the development of specific diagnostic tests and important therapeutic advances has contributed …
Magnetization transfer imaging of the pituitary gland
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 …
The influence of exercise on growth hormone and testosterone in prepubertal and early-pubertal boys
Charilaos Tsolakis, Paraskevi Xekouki, Socratis Kaloupsis, Dimitrios Karas, Dimosthenis Messinis, George Vagenas, Athanasios Dessypris
The purpose of this study was two fold a) to determine the levels of hormonal parameters which are related to growth and sexual maturation (T, SHBG, FAI, GH) in 66 pre-pubertal and early-pubertal boys (11-13 years old) who systematically engage in individual and team sports activities of endurance, strength, speed and skill, respectively …
Transient Congenital Hypothyroidism due to maternal autoimmune thyroid disease
Chryssanthi Mengreli, Maria Maniati-Christidi, Christina Kanaka-Gantenbein, Panagiotis Girginoudis, Apostolos G. Vagenakis, Catherine Dacou-Voutetakis
The neonatal screening program for congenital hypothyroidism (CH) in Greece shows an overall incidence of the disease of 1:2321. The cases with permanent CH have an incidence of 1:2542, whereas the transient forms of CH account for 8.7% of all cases diagnosed as CH. Transplacental passage of maternal thyrotropin receptor-blocking antibodies is a rare cause of transient CH …
Laron syndrome. First report from Greece
Assimina Galli-Tsinopoulou, Sanda Nousia-Arvanitakis, Ioannis Tsinopoulos, Christos Bechlivanides, Orit Shevah, Zvi Laron
Laron-type dwarfism is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by deletions or mutations of the growth hormone receptor gene. It is characterized by high circulating levels of growth hormone (GH) and low levels of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I). Patients are refractory to both endogenous and exogenous GH, and present severe growth retardation and obesity …
Hypoglycaemia secondary to the secretion of pro-insulin like growth factor ii by a metastatic neuroendocrine tumour with sarcomatous differentiation
Mia Morgan, Alexandra Nanzer, Cecilia Camacho-Hubner, Gregory A. Kaltsas, John P. Monson
A patient presented with frequent episodes of spontaneous hypoglycaemia due to a disseminated neuroendocrine tumour with sarcomatous differentiation, secreting incompletely processed pro-insulin-like growth factor II (pro-IGF-II). Although the combination of GH and glucocorticoid therapy initially controlled the hypoglycaemia …
Macroprolactinemia in a young man and review of the literature
Evangeline Vassilatou, Panayiotis Schinochoritis, Stamatina Marioli, Ioanna Tzavara
A 21-year old man, complaining of headaches and fatigue, with a negative past medical history and a normal clinical examination, underwent a hormonal investigation which revealed hyper-prolactinemia and intact pituitary-gonadal axis. Drug-induced hyperprolactinemia was excluded …
Tracing the origin of the term “gene”
Theano D. Kontopoulou, Spyros G. Marketos
A century has passed (1902 – 2002) since the Danish botanist and geneticist Wilhelm Ludwig Johannsen established the scientific term “gene”. The centenary of this biological term coincides with the 50th anniversary of the unraveling of the structure of DNA, the basic molecule of heredity …