Endocrine Abstracts

Background: HSD-1 converts cortisone to cortisol in tissues in which cortisol excess is associated with morbidity including liver, adipose, bone, and brain. SPI-62 is a potent HSD-1 inhibitor in clinical development for treatment of Cushing’s syndrome and autonomous cortisol secretion, and as adjunctive therapy to prednisolone in polymyalgia rheumatica. In Phase 1 clinical trials SPI-62 was generally well tolerated and associated with maximal liver and brain HSD-1 inhibit...

Background: Low levels of DHEAS, such as <1.04 µmol/l, have been used as a criterion for autonomous cortisol secretion (ACS) in patients with adrenal incidentalomas. Age- and gender-specific cut-off levels could theoretically improve DHEAS as a marker of HPA-axis suppression and as a criterion for ACS.Objective: We aimed to find cut-off levels of DHEAS that are best associated with HPA-axis suppression and determine whether they are correlated w...

Introduction: The onset and progression of liver damage in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is tightly associated with metabolic derangements. Steroids may affect lipid metabolism but their alterations in the setting of NAFLD remain to be fully explored.Patients and Methods: We analyzed data from 121 patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD and 108 controls (CT). A panel of 26 steroids (including glucocorticoids, mineralocorticoids, androgens, and prog...

Single nucleotide polymorphisms in the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene influence tissue sensitivity of GR. Several studies have shown different effects of BclI GR polymorphism on body composition and metabolic parameters. The objective of this study was to explore the effect of BclI GR polymorphism on the body composition and glucose metabolism. Biochemical tests and hormonal evaluation were performed in 106 consecutive women with adrenal incidentalomas (AI...

Background and aim: The relationship between sarcopenia and overt cortisol excess as in Cushing’s syndrome is well-known. However, only a few studies investigated the relationship between autonomous cortisol secretion (ACS) in adrenal incidentalomas and skeletal muscle mass. The aims of our study were to analyze the skeletal muscle mass in patients with adrenal incidentalomas and to investigate the correlations with hormonal data.Methods: We enrolle...

Background: Adrenal incidentalomas are common and require investigation to exclude malignancy and evidence of hormone overproduction. Clinical guidelines recommend overnight dexamethasone suppression tests (ONDST) to assess for cortisol hypersecretion with cortisol levels of 50-138 nmol/l termed “mild autonomous cortisol secretion” (MACS). MACS may be associated with both cardiovascular and metabolic morbidity. We assessed cardiovascular risk in patients with MACS us...

Background: Several studies argued that the cardiovascular evaluation of patients with nonfunctioning adrenal incidentaloma is of particular importance, even if a direct association seems difficult to underline.Objective: We aimed to evaluate the possibility of stratifying cardiometabolic risk through metanephrine levels in patients with incidentally discovered nonfunctioning adrenal adenoma.Design: In this retrospective cross-sect...

Background: Patients with Cushing’s syndrome (CS) in remission show residual cardiometabolic derangements leading to increased cardiovascular risk. Impaired characteristics of gut microbiome (dysbiosis), such as richness, diversity and composition, have been associated with several cardiometabolic risk factors, including obesity, insulin resistance and atherosclerosis. Whether CS patients present with intestinal dysbiosis is currently unknown. Our study was aimed at evalu...