Neuroendocrine neoplasms of the breast: a multicenter retrospective Italian study.

Background: The aim of our retrospective study was to describe the immunophenotypic characteristics of neuroendocrine breast neoplasm (BNEN), a peculiar and rare type of breast carcinoma.

Methods: Pathological data from 51 patients affected by BNEN were retrospectively evaluated, and 44 patients were considered eligible (7 patients with incomplete data were excluded). The patients were followed in six different Italian hospitals between 2009 and 2019.

The risk of hospitalisation from RSV is not increased by co-infection in children under 24-months-of-age.

The recent pandemic prompted renewed interest in paediatric respiratory infections, including whether co-infections - particularly with RSV - have an adverse prognostic impact. We evaluated the charts of all children presenting with respiratory symptoms to our unit between October 2022 and April 2023, each of whom was subjected to a multiplex PCR assay to detect eight viral targets and one bacterial target and examine the relationships between mono- and co-infections and hospitalization outcomes. We observed that younger age and RSV infection were both associated with the need for hospitalisation and the duration of hospitalisation after adjusting for confounders.

A rare rarity: Neuroendocrine tumor of the esophagus.

Esophageal Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are rare, aggressive and lacking specific symptoms. This causes a diagnostic delay, worsening the prognosis. Numerous cases are reported in literature, without a consensus on the management.

Chromogranin A: From Laboratory to Clinical Aspects of Patients with Neuroendocrine Tumors.

. Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are characterized by having behavior and prognosis that depend upon tumor histology, primary site, staging, and proliferative index. The symptoms associated with carcinoid syndrome and vasoactive intestinal peptide tumors are treated with octreotide acetate.

Everolimus as first line therapy for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours: current knowledge and future perspectives.

Purpose: Everolimus has been shown to be effective for advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (pNETs), but its positioning in the therapeutic algorithm for pNETs is matter of debate.

Methods: With the aim to shed light on this point, we performed an up-to-date critical review taking into account the results of both retrospective and prospective published studies, and the recommendations of international guidelines. In addition, we performed an extensive search on the Clinical Trial Registries databases worldwide, to gather information on the ongoing clinical trials related to this specific topic.

Ultrasound features of medullary thyroid carcinoma correlate with cancer aggressiveness: a retrospective multicenter study.

Background: Poor prognosis of medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) with suspicious ultrasound (US) features has been reported. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between preoperative US presentation and aggressiveness features of MTC. Also, US features of MTC were compared with those previously reported.

A reappraisal of diagnosing GH deficiency in adults: role of gender, age, waist circumference, and body mass index.

Objective: The objective of the study was to reevaluate the diagnostic accuracy of GH peak after GHRH plus arginine test (GHRH+ARG) according to patients' age, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference to diagnose GH deficiency (GHD).

Outcome Measures: GH peak after GHRH+ARG and IGF-I levels reported as sd score.

Subjects: Subjects included 408 controls (218 women, 190 men, aged 15-80 yr) and 374 patients with hypopituitarism (167 women, 207 men, aged 16-83 yr).

Relationship between growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-1 axis integrity and voluntary weight loss after gastric banding surgery for severe obesity.

Background: The aim of this observational study was to determine, in a retrospective analysis, whether growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) at baseline or changes in the GH/IGF-1 axis after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) is associated with weight loss and body composition changes in severely obese nondiabetic patients.

Methods: Weight loss (expressed as percent excess weight loss [EWL%]), anthropometry, body composition by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), serum IGF-1, and GH peak after GH-releasing hormone (GHRH) plus arginine (ARG) test were measured and expressed as standard deviation scores (SDS) of reference values in 104 women and 36 men, age (mean +/- SD) 34 +/- 11 and 30.2 +/- 11 years, and BMI 44 +/- 5.

Growth hormone treatment on atherosclerosis: results of a 5-year open, prospective, controlled study in male patients with severe growth hormone deficiency.

Background: Severe GH deficiency (GHD) is associated with, increased cardiovascular risk and intima-media thickness (IMT) at major arteries.

Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate the 5-yr effects of GH replacement on common carotid IMT and insulin resistance syndrome (IRS) (at least two of the following: triglycerides levels > or = 1.7 mmol/liter, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels < or = 1.

GH and IGF-I deficiency are associated with reduced loss of fat mass after laparoscopic-adjustable silicone gastric banding.

Context: GH secretion is reduced in obese subjects and increases after body weight loss. It is still unclear if changes in the GH/IGF-I axis after laparoscopic-adjustable silicone gastric banding (LASGB) are associated with changes of body composition.

Objective: To analyse the relationships between changes in the GH/IGF-I axis and those of body weight and composition before and after LASGB.

The natural history of partial growth hormone deficiency in adults: a prospective study on the cardiovascular risk and atherosclerosis.

Background: Partial GH deficiency (GHD) in adults is poorly studied.

Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate the natural history and clinical implications of partial GHD.

Study Design: This was an analytical, observational, prospective, case-control study.

Does a gender-related effect of growth hormone (GH) replacement exist on cardiovascular risk factors, cardiac morphology, and performance and atherosclerosis? Results of a two-year open, prospective study in young adult men and women with severe GH deficiency.

Context: GH secretion and response to GH replacement are gender-related.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of GH deficiency (GHD) and replacement on the cardiovascular system according to gender.

Design: The design was open and prospective.

Common carotid intima-media thickness in growth hormone (GH)-deficient adolescents: a prospective study after GH withdrawal and restarting GH replacement.

We prospectively investigated the risk of early atherosclerosis, by classical cardiovascular risk factors and intima-media thickness (IMT) at the common carotid arteries, in 23 adolescents diagnosed as GH deficient (GHD) during childhood and in 23 healthy sex-, age-, and BMI-matched controls. Measurements were performed in all subjects before stopping GH replacement. Because the diagnosis of GHD had been confirmed in 15 of the 23 adolescents, the protocol changed according to the diagnosis as follows: measurements were repeated after 6 months of GH withdrawal and 6 months of GH reinstitution in the 15 with GHD, and after 6 and 12 months of GH withdrawal, measurements were also taken in the eight non-GHD subjects.

Short-term effects of growth hormone (GH) treatment or deprivation on cardiovascular risk parameters and intima-media thickness at carotid arteries in patients with severe GH deficiency.

To explore early effects of GH treatment or deprivation on cardiovascular risk factors and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), we designed this randomized, cross-over study in 34 adult patients with severe GH deficiency. At study entry, the patients were randomized into two groups (A and B); group A (n = 17) received appropriate replacement therapy including GH at standard doses for 6 months and then were withdrawn from GH for the subsequent 6 months; group B (n = 17) received appropriate replacement therapy excluding GH for 6 months with the addition of GH in the subsequent 6 months. After the first 6 months, we observed a significant increase in IGF-I levels and of high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol together with a significant decrease in diastolic blood pressure, the total/HDL-cholesterol ratio, and C-reactive protein in the patients in group A, whereas vascular parameters did not significantly change.

The severity of growth hormone deficiency correlates with the severity of cardiac impairment in 100 adult patients with hypopituitarism: an observational, case-control study.

In 100 patients with hypopituitarism and 80 sex- and age-matched healthy subjects, we correlated the severity of cardiac impairment to the severity of GH deficiency (GHD). By the GH peak after arginine plus GHRH test (normal > 16.5 microg/liter), the patients were classified as severe GHD (n = 56), partial GHD (n = 27), and non-GHD (n = 17).

Insulin-like growth factor-1 deficiency determines increased intima-media thickness at common carotid arteries in adult patients with growth hormone deficiency.

Objective: To investigate the role of IGF-1 on intima-media thickness (IMT) at common carotid arteries by Doppler ultrasonography.

Subjects: Thirty-nine patients (17 women, 22 men, aged 25-70 years) with severe GH deficiency (GHD), 19 with normal and 20 with low IGF-1 levels, and 39 sex-, age- and body mass index (BMI)-matched healthy controls.

Results: Patients with GHD showed abnormalities in lipid profile, and increased fibrinogen levels, mean IMT (0.

Somatostatin analogs in treatment of non-growth hormone-secreting pituitary adenomas.

Besides well-known effects in GH-secreting adenomas, somatostatin analogs such as octreotide and lanreotide have been used in TSH-secreting adenomas and in the so-called clinically nonfunctioning adenomas. The rationale for their use is based on the evidence that both these tumor types express large amounts of somatostatin receptor subtypes 2 and 5, which are preferentially bound by octreotide and lanreotide. However, whether in TSH-secreting adenomas the results are excellent in the nonfunctioning type, the results are controversial.