Acromegaly induced by ectopic secretion of GHRH: a review 30 years after GHRH discovery.

Ectopic acromegaly is very rare and since the discovery of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH), 30 years ago, only 74 cases have been reported in the literature. Except for a recent French series of 21 cases, most of them were case reports. The present review summarizes the current knowledge on clinical presentation, diagnosis and prognosis.

Clinical characteristics and outcome of acromegaly induced by ectopic secretion of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH): a French nationwide series of 21 cases.

Context: Ectopic GHRH secretion is a rare cause of acromegaly, and case reports are mainly isolated.

Setting: From the registry of the sole laboratory performing plasma GHRH assays in France, we identified cases of ectopic GHRH secretion presenting with acromegaly between 1983 and 2008.

Patients: Twenty-one patients aged 14-77 yr were identified from 12 French hospitals.

Decrease of anti-Mullerian hormone in genetic spermatogenic failure.

The aim of this study was to compare anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) plasma levels in patients with azoospermia according to the physiopathology. In a prospective clinical study from April 2008 to March 2009 in University Hospital, we measured AMH levels in 49 consecutive patients with azoospermia. AMH plasma levels were correlated with FSH, inhibin B, bioavailable testosterone plasma levels and testicular volume and compared between nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) and obstructive azoospermia (OA) and within four physiopathological subgroups of NOA: genetic, cryptorchidism, cytotoxic and unexplained.