Marco Mendola, Alessia Dolci, Lanfranco Piscopello, Giustino Tomei, Dario Bauer, Sabrina Corbetta, Bruno Ambrosi
We describe a patient affected by Cushing’s disease due to the presence of double pituitary adenomas, one located within the anterior pituitary and the other in the infundibulum associated with a remnant of Rakthe’s pouch. Cure was achieved only after the infundibulum lesion was surgically removed …
Maria Francesca Messina, Tommaso Aversa, Luisa de Sanctis, Malgorzata Wasniewska, Mariella Valenzise, Giovanni Battista Pajno, Filippo De Luca, Fortunato Lombardo
BACKGROUND: This study was carried out because of the rarity of peripheral precocious puberty (PPP) in boys with McCune-Albright syndrome (MAS) and the lack of data on adult height of treated MAS males, treatment for this disorder being not as yet standardized …
Ines Zendah, Hafaoua Daghfous, Sonia Ben Mrad, Fatma Tritar
Thyroid tuberculosis is a rare disease even in countries in which tuberculosis (TB) constitutes an endemic disorder. The diagnosis is often difficult as the clinical presentation has no distinct characteristics. We report a 47-year-old woman who presented with a painful nodular swelling of the neck, confirmed by physical examination and sweating…
Eugen Melcescu, William B. Horton, Karen T. Pitman, Vani Vijayakumar, Christian A. Koch
Euthyroid Graves’ orbitopathy (GO) combined with incidental papillary thyroid microcarcinoma has rarely been reported. CASE REPORT: A 61-year-old Caucasian woman initially presented with progressive fatigue, exophthalmos, and thyroid function tests within normal limits …
Chrysanthi Aggeli, Alexander M. Nixon, Christos Parianos, Georgios Vletsis, Labrini Papanastasiou, Athina Markou, Theodora Kounadi, Georgrios Piaditis, Georgios N. Zografos
OBJECTIVE: Resection of pheochromocytomas is a challenging procedure due to hemodynamic lability. Our aim was to evaluate surgical outcomes in 67 patients with pheochromocytoma and to validate the role of laparoscopic surgery in the treatment of these tumors. DESIGN: This study is a retrospective review. A total of 68 procedures for pheochromocytoma …
Effie Poulakou-Rebelakou, Spyros G. Marketos
Many Greek and Latin medical terms are in use on account of the fact that modern day Western conventional medicine originates in Greek and Roman anti-quity. The writings of Hippocrates and Galen, as well as of Celsus and Plinius…
Sarah Frankton, Suhail Baithun, Ehab Husain, Katherine Davis, Ashley B. Grossman
A patient was presented with four days of vomiting, abdominal pain and sweating. At presentation the Capillary Blood Glucose (CBG) was 1.7 mmol/L, the Blood Pressure (BP) was 182/102 mmHg, and the pulse 100 bpm. On examination, he was sweaty, pale and cold. The initial differential diagnosis was hypoglycaemia secondary to insulin abuse, hypoadrenalism or insulinoma …
Adina Ghemigian, Mircea Ghemigian, Irina Popescu, Lavinia Vija, Eugenia Petrova, Nicoleta Dumitru, Dumitru Ioachim
Primary hyperparathyroidism is a common endocrine disorder that is mostly caused by solitary tumors within the parathyroid glands. Characterized by early debut and higher frequency of multiple parathyroid masses, familial forms of primary hyperparathyroidism are caused by the already known mutations …
Fotini Malandrinou, Sofia Tseleni-Balafouta, Nicolaos Kakaviatos, Panagiotis Singhellakis
A 42-year old white female with a primary Malignant Fibrous Histiocytoma (MFH) is described. The patient was examined for a “cold” nodule of the thyroid diagnosed five years previously. The patient had been on L-thyroxine therapy for three years which was discontinued by the patient 18 months prior to the present visit …
Mahin Hashemipour, Roya Kelishadi, Javad Shapouri, Nizal Sarrafzadegan, Masoud Amini, Naser Tavakoli, Ahmad Movahedian-Attar, Parisa Mirmoghtadaee, Parinaz Poursafa
OBJECTIVE: Zinc, an essential trace element and a component of many enzymes, is involved in the synthesis, storage and release of insulin. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of zinc supplementation on insulin resistance and components of the metabolic syndrome in prepubertal obese children. DESIGN: This triple-masked …
Goran Cvijovic, Dragan Micic, Aleksandra Kendereski, Svetlana Zoric, Mirjana Sumarac-Dumanovic, Svetislav Tatic, Aleksandar Trivic, Danica Pejkovic-Stamenkovic, Danka Jeremic
OBJECTIVE: Serum calcitonin (CT) is a sensitive but not specific marker for medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). There are a large number of conditions that may elevate CT levels. CASE REPORT: Herein we present the case of a 47-year old woman with Hashimoto thyroiditis …
Nese Ozbey, Altay Sencer, Sinan Tanyolac, Ramazan Kurt, Serra Sencer, Bilge Bilgic, Inan Turantan, Senay Molvalilar
A patient with an intrasellar germinoma leading to pituitary stalk thickening is reported. The patient, a 24-year old woman, presented with hyperprolactinemia, secondary hypothyroidism, and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism with no evidence of diabetes insipidus. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination revealed an increased number of lymphocytes and histiocytes…
Roland Gärtner, Petra Rank, Birgit Ander
OBJECTIVE: As we previously demonstrated, the inhibitory effect of iodine on thyroid cell growth is mediated by iodolactones, especially 6-iodo-5-hydroxy-eicosatrienoic acid (δ-iodolactone). In this communication we compare the effect of iodide, molecular iodine and δ-iodolactone on growth inhibition and apoptosis on three human thyroid carcinoma cell lines …
Carlo Cappelli, Mario Rotondi, Ilenia Pirola, Barbara Agosti, Ana Maria Formenti, Pasquale De Cata, Massimo Salvetti, Luca Chiovato, Maurizio Castellano
OBJECTIVE: Metformin treatment may induce a decrease/suppression in serum TSH levels, mimicking sub-clinical hyperthyroidism (SHT). The aim of the present study was to retrospectively evaluate changes in several electrocardiographic indices in euthyroid subjects with diabetes who, after starting metformin treatment …
Maria Maniati-Christidis, Fotini Psychou, Claire Nihoul-Fekete
A female infant with persistent hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia is described. Persistent euglycemia could not be achieved by diazoxide, somatostatin and frequent, low protein feeds. Preoperative localization of focal insulin hypersecretion by percutaneous pancreatic venous sampling allowed excision of only a small pancreatic portion which was followed by normalization of blood glucose levels …
Masao Jinno, Kenichi Kondou, Koji Teruya
OBJECTIVE: Insulin resistance is associated with aging and stress, both common among patients repeatedly failing to conceive with in vitro fertilization (IVF repeaters). In the present study we examined whether low-dose metformin could improve the outcome in IVF repeaters without polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) …
Rene Chee, Ravin Agah, Roberto Vita, Salvatore Benvenga
OBJECTIVE: To report a case of vaccine-induced Graves’ disease successfully managed with L-carnitine and propranolol and without antithyroid drugs (ATDs). ATDs sometimes need to be used at low doses or can be contraindicated/refused. One of the ancillary compounds available is L-carnitine …
A. Mortoglou, H. Candiloros
In order to examine the significance of differences in the triiodothyronine/thyroxine (T3/T4) ratio in the achievement of euthyroidism and in different thyroidal diseases, we studied 1050 subjects: 233 were euthyroid (Eu), 239 hypothyroid (Hypo) with initial TSH levels >15 mU/L, 273 hypothyroid on substitution therapy with L-thyroxine alone and TSH values of 0.35-3.5 mU/L, (hypoRx), 236 hyperthyroid (hyper) and 69 …
Sibel Ertek, Arrigo FG Cicero, Oya Caglar, Gurbuz Erdogan
OBJECTIVE: Zinc is essential for many biochemical processes and also for cell proliferation. Thyroid hormones influence zinc metabolism by affecting zinc absorption and excretion. Additionally, zinc deficiency affects thyroid function. The aim of the present study was to evaluate a possible association of zinc levels with thyroid volume …
Silvano Bertelloni, Eleonora Dati, Angelo Valetto, Veronica Bertini, Alfredo Danti, Giampiero I. Baroncelli
BACKGROUND: Mixed gonadal dysgenesis (MGD) is a rare disorder. Short stature is a well known feature of this condition. Although growth hormone (GH) treatment has been suggested to treat growth impairment, conflicting data surround this issue …
V. Leoutsakos
Goiter is very common in many parts of the world and was recognized long before the thyroid gland itself. Since prehistoric times, the visible outgrowths in the front of the neck have been objects of curiosity and study. Their nature, appearance, cause and treatment have long been the subject of thousands of reports …
Salvatore Maria Corsello, Rosa Maria Paragliola, Pietro Locantore, Francesca Ingraudo, Maria Pia Ricciato, Carlo Antonio Rota, Paola Senes, Alfredo Pontecorvi
Zoledronic acid is a newly FDA-approved bisphosphonate for the treatment of hypercalcemia of malignancy. Although the safety and efficacy of this drug in treating hypercalcemia associated with hyperparathyroidism have not yet been established in clinically controlled trials, its off-label use is not uncommon …
Ahmet Anık, Gönül Çatlı, Ayhan Abacı, Handan Güleryüz, Çağdaş Güdücü, Adile Öniz, Şule Can, Bumin Dündar, Ece Böber
OBJECTIVE: Kallmann syndrome (KS) is a genetic disorder with the distinctive features of hyposmia or anosmia and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. Though hyposmia/anosmia can be evaluated by both objective and subjective smell tests, there is no study comparing these two methods in KS …
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 …
Maria I. Kalliora, Andriani Vazeou, Dimitrios Delis, Evangelos Bozas, Ioanna Thymelli, Christos S. Bartsocas
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate the seasonal variation of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) diagnosis in Greek children. DESIGN: The study group consisted of 1148 patients (604 males and 544 females) who were diagnosed with T1DM during the period 1978-2008. The mean age at diagnosis was 8.32±5.01 years …