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 …
Wolfgang Wuttke, Hubertus Jarry, Dana Seidlovα-Wuttke
Hormones are peptides/proteins, lipids or aminoacid derivatives which after their secretion act on receptors to cause reactions within the respective receptive cells. Each cell of the body is in one way or another regulated by hormones. Hence, hormones exert innumerable effects on the organism of animals and humans …
Anastasia D. Dede, George P. Lyritis, Symeon Tournis
Anorexia nervosa is a serious psychiatric disorder accompanied by high morbidity and mortality. It is characterized by emaciation due to self-starvation and displays a unique hormonal profile. Alterations in gonadal axis, growth hormone resistance with low insulin-like growth factor I levels, hypercortisolemia and low triiodothyronine …
Luigi Bartalena, Maria Laura Tanda, Alessandra Medea, Claudio Marcocci, Aldo Pinchera
Severe Graves’ ophthalmopathy constitutes a complex therapeutic challenge and treatment outcome often is not satisfactory. Established methods of treatment include high-dose glucocorticoids, orbital radiotherapy and orbital decompression. Recently, the use of intravenous glucocorticoids has been shown to provide more favorable results than oral glucocorticoids…
Stelios Fountoulakis, Agathocles Tsatsoulis
Blood pressure (BP) is the outcome of the interaction of intravascular volume, cardiac output and peripheral resistance. Hypertension is defined as BP exceeding 139/89 mmHg, whereas “pre-hypertension” refers to systolic BP of 120 to 139 mmHg or a diastolic BP of 80 to 89 mmHg. Traditionally, hypertension has been subdivided into two forms: essential or primary and secondary…
Ulla Feldt-Rasmussen, Åse Krogh Rasmussen
Coexistence of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) and thyroid autoimmune diseases could represent a mere coincidence due to the frequent occurrence of autoimmunity, but there may also be a pathological and causative link between the two conditions. The coincidence of DTC with Hashimoto’s disease has been variably reported …
George Vassilakos, Anastassios Philippou, Panagiotis Tsakiroglou, Michael Koutsilieris
Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is a multipotent growth factor involved in the growth, development and regulation of homeostasis in a tissue-specific manner. Alternative splicing, multiple transcription initiation sites and different polyadelynation signals give rise to diverse mRNA isoforms …
Gregory A. Kaltsas, Zoe Stefanidou, Dimitris Papadogias, Ashley B. Grossman
Neuroendocrine tumours (NET) have a particular tendency to express functional receptors and/or uptake mechanisms. Radionuclides, such as 111In-pentetreotide, a somatostatin analogue, which bind to somatostatin receptors, present an imaging modality that has been used for both the diagnosis and staging of NET…
Jeffrey R. Garber
Retha R. Newbold
Environmental chemicals with hormone-like activity can disrupt programming of endocrine signaling pathways during development and result in adverse effects, some of which may not be apparent until much later in life. Recent reports link exposure to environmental endocrine disrupting chemicals during development with adverse health consequences …
George N. Zografos, Iraklis Perysinakis, Evangeline Vassilatou
Clinically inapparent adrenal masses which are incidentally detected have become a common problem in everyday practice. Approximately 5-20% of adrenal incidentalomas present subclinical cortisol hypersecretion which is characterized by subtle alterations of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal …
Evagelos N Liberopoulos, Moses S Elisaf
Thyroid disorders are known to influence lipid metabolism and are common in dyslipidemic patients. Overt and subclinical hypothyroidism have an adverse effect on the serum lipid profile that may predispose to the development of atherosclerotic disease. Although thyroid substitution therapy is beneficial for patients with overt hypothyroidism …
Petya Kamenova
BACKGROUND: Amelioration of insulin resistance could improve both glycaemic control and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Alpha-lipoic acid has been shown to improve insulin action after parenteral administration. OBJECTIVE: the aim of the study was to assess the effect of oral administration of alpha-lipoic acid on insulin sensitivity in patients with type 2 diabetes…
Natalia Sirimi, Dimitrios G. Goulis
Obesity, the most common metabolic disorder, concerns, among others, women of reproductive age and, when it occurs before or during pregnancy, constitutes a major risk factor for both maternal and fetal complications. The complications of obesity in a prospective mother include subfertility, miscarriage, thrombo-embolism, hypertensive disorders …
Maria P. Yavropoulou, Christos Xygonakis, Maria Lolou, Fotini Karadimou, John G. Yovos
Sclerosteosis and Van Buchem disease are two rare bone sclerosing disorders characterized by increased bone mineral density, tall stature and entrapment of cranial nerves due to overgrowth of a highly dense bone. Recent advances in human genetics have revealed the genetic background of these disorders …
Evanthia Diamanti-Kandarakis, Christina Piperi, Georgia Argyrakopoulou, Jiovanna Spina, Lambrini Papanastasiou, Angeliki Bergiele, Dimitrios Panidis
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a complex and heterogeneous disorder characterized by hyperandrogenemia, hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, and chronic anovulation. It is the most common endocrine disorder in women of reproductive age with an enigmatic pathophysiologic and molecular basis. The high prevalence of affected …
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 …