Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior.

Ultraviolet (UV) light affects endocrinological and behavioral aspects of sexuality via an unknown mechanism. Here we discover that ultraviolet B (UVB) exposure enhances the levels of sex-steroid hormones and sexual behavior, which are mediated by the skin. In female mice, UVB exposure increases hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis hormone levels, resulting in larger ovaries; extends estrus days; and increases anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) expression.

Thyroid dysfunction and survival in cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: analyses from a large single tertiary cancer center database.

Purpose: We aimed to assess the incidence, clinical and biochemical course of immunotherapy-induced thyroiditis and its implication on patients' survival, based on an extensive clinical experience from a tertiary cancer center.

Methods: Analyses were based on data from the electronic medical records of cancer patients treated with CPIs. Data included demographic characteristics, cancer type, Thyroid function tests (TFT), and survival.

Capillary-leak syndrome: an unrecognized early immune adverse effect of checkpoint-inhibitors treatment.

Capillary-leak syndrome is strongly associated with cytokine activity states. It is an ill-recognized adverse effect of checkpoint inhibitors treatment, which are typically associated with cellular immune response. We describe two patients with capillary leak syndrome following immune checkpoint inhibitors treatment.

Long-Term Follow-Up of Denosumab Discontinuers with Multiple Vertebral Fractures in the Real-World: A Case Series.

Denosumab discontinuation is associated with rapid reversal of bone turnover suppression and with a considerable increase in fracture risk, including a risk for multiple vertebral fractures (MVF). Long-term follow-up of patients who sustained MVF after denosumab discontinuation has not been reported. This case-series was aimed to provide a long-term follow-up on the management and outcome of denosumab discontinuers who initially presented with multiple vertebral fractures.

INCREASED SERUM CALCIUM IS NOT COMMON IN HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS WITH PRIMARY HYPERPARATHYROIDISM: A RETROSPECTIVE, OBSERVATIONAL STUDY.

Serum calcium levels often decrease during acute illness in patients with an intact calcium-regulating system. However, the dynamics of serum calcium levels in hospitalized patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) have not yet been described. Clinical and laboratory data were retrospectively retrieved from the electronic medical records of patients with PHPT before, during, and after hospitalization for various reasons (excluding parathyroid surgery).

Long-term control of Paget's disease of bone with low-dose, once-weekly, oral bisphosphonate preparations, in a "real world" setting.

Purpose: Bisphosphonates are the mainstay of the treatment of Paget's disease of bone (PDB). Clinical practice guidelines recommend treatment with intravenous zoledronic acid or high-dose oral nitrogen bisphosphonates (N-BPs). We present our long-term experience treating PDB patients with lower than recommended oral doses of N-BPs, equivalent to once-weekly doses used for treating osteoporosis.

BONE TURNOVER IN OSTEOPOROTIC WOMEN DURING LONG-TERM ORAL BISPHOSPHONATES TREATMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR TREATMENT FAILURE AND "DRUG HOLIDAY" IN THE REAL WORLD.

Objective: Little data exist to support concerns over bone turnover suppression during prolonged oral bisphosphonate treatment and on consequences of the recommended "drug holiday." This study was performed to assess bone resorption rates in postmenopausal osteoporotic women on prolonged oral bisphosphonate treatment and in response to switching to "drug holiday" intravenous bisphosphonate, or continuation of oral bisphosphonates.

Methods: The frequency distribution of the bone resorption marker urinary deoxypyridinoline crosslinks (uDPD), was obtained retrospectively from 211 osteoporotic women attended at an academic hospital endocrine clinic, treated for >2 years with oral bisphosphonates.

CLOMIPHENE CITRATE IN THE TREATMENT OF IDIOPATHIC OR FUNCTIONAL HYPOGONADOTROPIC HYPOGONADISM IN MEN: A CASE SERIES AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE.

Objective: Late-onset hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (LOH) is a complex, heterogeneous entity. Whenever treatment is indicated, the endocrine literature has recommend testosterone replacement. We present our experience with clomiphene citrate treatment in patients with LOH and a review of the literature.

Association between bone mineral density and incidence of breast cancer.

Introduction: Previous studies have suggested an inverse relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) and breast cancer incidence. The primary objective of this study was to assess whether BMD is associated with risk of subsequent breast cancer occurrence in the female population of southern Israel.

Methods: The electronic medical charts of women who underwent BMD at the Soroka Medical Center (SMC) between February 2003 and March 2011 were screened for subsequent breast cancer diagnoses.

[Summary of the Israeli Endocrine Society's consensus statement on the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of well-differentiated thyroid cancer].

Well differentiated epithelial cell thyroid cancer is not classified amongst the most aggressive diseases. Notwithstanding, it can potentially both impair quality of life and affect life expectancy. Appropriate treatment has been shown to be crucial in obtaining optimal outcomes on the course of the disease.

A quantitative assessment of a methodology for collaborative specification and evaluation of clinical guidelines.

We introduce a three-phase, nine-step methodology for specification of clinical guidelines (GLs) by expert physicians, clinical editors, and knowledge engineers and for quantitative evaluation of the specification's quality. We applied this methodology to a particular framework for incremental GL structuring (mark-up) and to GLs in three clinical domains. A gold-standard mark-up was created, including 196 plans and subplans, and 326 instances of ontological knowledge roles (KRs).

Runtime application of Hybrid-Asbru clinical guidelines.

Clinical guidelines are a major tool in improving the quality of medical care. However, to support the automation of guideline-based care, several requirements must be filled, such as specification of the guidelines in a machine-interpretable format and a connection to an Electronic Patient Record (EPR). For several different reasons, it is beneficial to convert free-text guidelines gradually, through several intermediate representations, to a machine-interpretable format.

Marked secular increase in the incidence rates of osteoporotic hip fractures in women and men in southern Israel.

Background: For the last 35 years, our medical center has been the only referral center and provider of emergency medical services for a well-defined geographic area in southern Israel.

Objectives: To evaluate trends in the incidence of hip fractures in this population.

Methods: The study was based on two surveys done approximately 20 years apart.

Brief report: Use and misuse of thyroid ultrasound in the initial workup of patients with suspected thyroid problems referred by primary care physicians to an endocrine clinic.

Background And Objectives: Thyroid ultrasound (TUS) plays an important but limited role in the evaluation of some complaints related to the thyroid gland. This study was designed to examine how primary care physicians use TUS before referring patients to an endocrine clinic.

Design: We audited all charts of first-time referrals for appropriateness of TUS use.

Livedo reticularis: a rare manifestation of Graves hyperthyroidism associated with anticardiolipin antibodies.

Livedo reticularis is a common presentation of the anticardiolipin syndrome. Although the presence of anticardiolipin (aCL) antibodies was previously reported in association with both Graves disease and Hashimoto thyroiditis, I am aware of no previous report of livedo reticularis in patients with Graves disease. A 29-year-old woman presented with very active Graves thyrotoxicosis.