Publications by authors named "Alessandra Casagrande"

Context: Paltusotine is a nonpeptide selective somatostatin receptor 2 agonist in development as once-daily oral treatment for acromegaly.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of paltusotine in the treatment of patients with acromegaly previously controlled with injected somatostatin receptor ligands (SRLs).

Methods: This phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial enrolled adults with acromegaly who had IGF-I ≤1.

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Purpose: Describe fracture risk assessment practices among physicians treating osteoporosis in a real-life setting.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study in a tertiary academic center. Inclusion criteria involved adults (aged ≥18 years) who received minimum adequate therapy (bisphosphates, raloxifene, or denosumab ≥ 3 years or teriparatide ≥ 18 months).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to analyze physicians' treatment preferences and patterns for osteoporosis therapy over a 10-year period, focusing on various medications.
  • A total of 12,885 patients were identified, with 274 meeting the inclusion criteria; the majority were women with a mean age of 68.8 years, primarily treated by primary care physicians and rheumatologists.
  • Alendronate was found to be the most frequently prescribed initial therapy, while denosumab was the most common second treatment after a drug holiday.
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Purpose: Oxytocin is a hypothalamus derived, posterior pituitary stored nonapeptide which has gained recent interest as an important neuropsychiatric and metabolic hormone beyond its classic role in lactation and parturition. Hypopituitarism is a heterogenous disorder of derangement in one or more anterior or posterior pituitary hormones. Diagnosis of deficiency and hormone replacement exists to address all relevant axes except for oxytocin.

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Background: Long-term remission of acromegaly after somatostatin analog withdrawal has been reported in 18-42% of patients in studies with a relatively small number of patients using different inclusion and remission criteria. The objectives of this study were to establish the probability and predictive factors for short- and long-term remission [normal IGF-1 for age/sex: IGF-1 ≤1.00 × upper limit of normal (ULN)] after octreotide long-acting release (LAR) withdrawal in a larger population of well-controlled patients with acromegaly (normal mean IGF-1 in the last 24 months).

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Objective: To evaluate the effects of oral estradiol and transdermal 17β-estradiol on serum concentrations of IGF1 and its binding proteins in women with hypopituitarism.

Design: Prospective, comparative study.

Methods: Eleven patients with hypopituitarism were randomly allocated to receive 2 mg oral estradiol (n=6) or 50 μg/day of transdermal 17β-estradiol (n=5) for 3 months.

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We review the clinical and biochemical criteria used for evaluation of the transsphenoidal pituitary surgery results in the treatment of Cushing's disease (CD). Firstly, we discuss the pathophysiology of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in normal subjects and patients with CD. Considering the series published in the last 25 years, we observed a significant variation in the remission or cure criteria, including the choice of biochemical tests, timing, threshold values to define remission, and the interference of glucocorticoid replacement or previous treatment.

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Growth hormone quantification in serum is essential for confirming or ruling out its excess. The absence of clinical criteria sufficiently sensitive to evaluate the treatment success enables GH as the key diagnostic procedure and for that, its measurements must be done in a reliable way and must allow uniform interpretation. Several different biochemical criteria for remission have been suggested in the past, including a random GH measurement less than 2.

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The pituitary gland, sella turcica and the parasellar region can be involved by a wide variety of lesions, including benign and malignant neoplasms as well as a wide variety of non neoplastic tumor-like lesions. Clinical and radiological aspects could help in the differential diagnosis of these lesions. Nevertheless, in many cases only the histopathological analysis could establish the definitive diagnosis.

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