Katerina Saltiki, Maria Alevizaki
Coronary heart disease is the main cause of death in women. Women during reproductive years are at lower risk for coronary heart disease than men but this difference tends to disappear after the menopause. In this article, we briefly review the clinical and experimental data which highlight the protective role of endogenous estrogens in the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease …
Baris Akinci, Abdurrahman Comlekci, Serkan Yener, Tevfik Demir, Firat Bayraktar, Faize Yuksel, Sena Yesil
OBJECTIVE: There is controversy as to whether hypothyroidism increases cardiovascular risk. The effect of levothyroxine on the cardiovascular risk profile is also unclear. Recent studies suggest that there is evidence of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction in hypothyroidism. Soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L) is a protein expressed mainly by activated platelets …
Stelios Fountoulakis, George Philippou, Agathocles Tsatsoulis
The thyroid gland is dependent on dietary iodine for the production of thyroid hormones, normal iodine requirement being about 150-200μg/day. Long-term deficiency in iodine intake is associated with the development of goiter. When the prevalence of goiter in a population rises above 5-10%, the problem is considered endemic …
Fritz S. Keck, Leonidas H. Duntas
In 1889, the pancreatectomy performed on a dog by Joseph von Mehring and Oskar Minkowski led to the discovery of the pancreatic origin of diabetes disease. Already 200 years before, Johann Conrad Brunner had successfully performed eight pancreatectomies on dogs and had precisely described the symptoms of polyphagia, polyuria, and polydipsia…
Athanasios Christoforidis, Eirini Kazantzidou, Ioanna Tsatra, Haido Tsantali, George Koliakos, Emmanouil Hatzipantelis, George Katzos, Miranda Athanassiou-Metaxa
OBJECTIVE: Osteopenia/osteoporosis of multi-factorial pathogenetic mechanism is reported to be a significant cause of morbidity in adult patients with β-thalassaemia major. Even in young patients, decreased Bone Mineral Density (BMD) values are a consistent finding in the literature. This study was performed in order to assess BMD …
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 …
Wilmar M. Wiersinga
Thyroid nodules in childhood and adolescence are less prevalent but more often malignant than in adulthood. Malignant nodules are predominantly papillary cancers; benign nodules are mostly solid colloid nodules/adenomas, but can be cystic or due lymphocytic thyroiditis…
Andrzej Wincewicz, Mariola Sulkowska, Stanislaw Sulkowski
Tadeus Reichstein (1897-1996) was the first scientist born in Poland to receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology (1950) for the “discovery of hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects”, as stated by the Nobel Prize Committee. His family being deeply devoted to Polish cultural and historical heritage
Emmanuel Varverakis, Evaggelos Neonakis, Maria Tzardi, Emmanuel Chrysos
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the application of color flow Doppler (CFD) sonography in the preoperative management of benign and malignant cold thyroid nodules. DESIGN: Eighty-five patients with a cold thyroid nodule larger than 1cm were examined with CFD sonography prior to thyroidectomy. The histological examination revealed that 18 (21%) patients had malignant nodules …