Designing Mobile Phone Text Messages Using the Behavior Change Wheel Framework to Influence Food Literacy in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes in Kenya: Protocol for a Systematic Development Study.

Background: The worldwide prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) has increased in the past decade, and it is projected to increase by 126% by 2045 in Africa. At the same time, mobile phone use has increased in Africa, providing a potential for innovative mobile health interventions to support diabetes care.

Objective: This study aimed to apply the Behavior Change Wheel (BCW) framework to develop text messages to influence food literacy in adults with T2D in urban Kenya.

Perceived facilitators and barriers to healthy dietary behaviour in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Kenya: A qualitative study.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the facilitators and barriers to healthy dietary behaviour in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Kenya.

Design: A qualitative descriptive design using telephone interviews was applied. An interview guide was developed through a modified theoretical framework.

Not Simply a Structural Problem: Psychological Determinants of Headache in Patients with Tumors of the Sellar Region.

Objective: Headache in patients with tumors of the sellar region (TSR) has previously been attributed entirely to biomechanical causes. This study aimed to investigate the influence of psychological determinants for the occurrence of and disability due to headaches in patients with TSR.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional single-center study with a logistic regression approach.

Thyroid Related Quality of Life in Elderly with Subclinical Hypothyroidism and Improvement on Levothyroxine is Distinct from that in Young Patients (TSAGE).

The aim of this study was to investigate in a longitudinal approach whether levothyroxine (LT4) substitution has a different impact on quality of life (QoL) and thyroid related QoL in younger (<40 years) and older subjects (>60 years) with elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) concentrations. The study included male and female patients with newly diagnosed, untreated subclinical hypothyroidism defined by TSH>8 mU/l. Patients were recruited throughout Germany from 2013-2016 and evaluated by clinical assessment, blood sampling and questionnaires for health related QoL and thyroid-disease thyroid-related QoL (ThyPRO) at time of diagnosis and six months after initiation of LT4 treatment.

Long-Term Endocrine and Metabolic Consequences of Cancer Treatment: A Systematic Review.

The number of patients surviving ≥5 years after initial cancer diagnosis has significantly increased during the last decades due to considerable improvements in the treatment of many cancer entities. A negative consequence of this is that the emergence of long-term sequelae and endocrine disorders account for a high proportion of these. These late effects can occur decades after cancer treatment and affect up to 50% of childhood cancer survivors.

2018 European Thyroid Association (ETA) Guidelines on the Diagnosis and Management of Central Hypothyroidism.

Objectives: Central hypothyroidism (CeH) is a rare form of hypothyroidism characterized by insufficient thyroid stimulation due to disturbed pituitary and/or hypothalamic functioning. Due to its origin and the whole clinical context, CeH represents a challenging condition in clinical practice as it is characterized by suboptimal accuracy of clinical and biochemical parameters for diagnosis and management. Since no expert consensus or guidance for this condition is currently available, a task force of experts received the commitment from the European Thyroid Association (ETA) to prepare this document based on the principles of clinical evidence.

A Copeptin-Based Approach in the Diagnosis of Diabetes Insipidus.

Background: The indirect water-deprivation test is the current reference standard for the diagnosis of diabetes insipidus. However, it is technically cumbersome to administer, and the results are often inaccurate. The current study compared the indirect water-deprivation test with direct detection of plasma copeptin, a precursor-derived surrogate of arginine vasopressin.

Melatonin secretion following brain midline irradiation is diminished, but not correlated with subjective sleep disturbances.

Objective: Cranial irradiation for brain tumours or leukaemias has been related to cognitive, endocrine and psychosocial late effects as well as sleep disturbances and increased daytime sleepiness. Studies suggest that cranial irradiation might impact on pineal melatonin secretion. Melatonin is an important regulator in human circadian rhythms and the sleep-wake cycle.

Comprehensive assessment of sex hormones in Takotsubo syndrome.

Background: The detailed pathomechanism of Takotsubo syndrome (TS) is still elusive. Due to the predominance of postmenopausal females, a potential role of sex hormones has been suggested. However, the limited available data are contradictory.

Sleep quality and health-related quality of life among long-term survivors of (non-) Hodgkin lymphoma in Germany.

This study investigated sleep quality and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among long-term survivors of Hodgkin (HL) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The aim was to explore the impact of personal and health-related factors on sleep quality as well as associations between sleep quality and HRQOL. For the postal survey, participants with a minimum age of 18 years initially treated between 1998 and 2008 were recruited via the population-based cancer registry in Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany.

Copeptin as a marker of an altered CRH axis in pituitary disease.

Background: Copeptin (pre-proAVP) secreted in equimolar amounts with vasopressin closely reflects vasopressin release. Copeptin has been shown to subtly mirror stress potentially mediated via corticotrophin-releasing hormone. To further test a potential direct interaction of corticotrophin-releasing hormone with copeptin release, which could augment vasopressin effects on pituitary function, we investigated copeptin response to corticotrophin-releasing hormone.

Differential regulation of monocarboxylate transporter 8 expression in thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism.

Objective: Thyroid hormone (TH) transporters are expressed in thyrocytes and most play a role in TH release. We asked whether expression of the monocarboxylate transporter 8 (MCT8) and the L-type amino acid transporters LAT2 and LAT4 is changed with thyrocyte dedifferentiation and in hyperfunctioning thyroid tissues.

Design And Methods: Protein expression and localization of transporters was determined by immunohistochemistry in human thyroid specimen including normal thyroid tissue (NT,  = 19), follicular adenoma (FA,  = 44), follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC,  = 45), papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC,  = 40), anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC,  = 40) and Graves' disease (GD,  = 50) by calculating the 'hybrid' (H) score.

Plasma proteome and metabolome characterization of an experimental human thyrotoxicosis model.

Background: Determinations of thyrotropin (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT) represent the gold standard in evaluation of thyroid function. To screen for novel peripheral biomarkers of thyroid function and to characterize FT-associated physiological signatures in human plasma we used an untargeted OMICS approach in a thyrotoxicosis model.

Methods: A sample of 16 healthy young men were treated with levothyroxine for 8 weeks and plasma was sampled before the intake was started as well as at two points during treatment and after its completion, respectively.

Phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) and PI3K-related kinase (PIKK) activity contributes to radioresistance in thyroid carcinomas.

Anaplastic (ATC) and certain follicular thyroid-carcinomas (FTCs) are radioresistant. The Phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway is commonly hyperactivated in thyroid-carcinomas. PI3K can modify the PI3K-related kinases (PIKKs) in response to radiation: How PIKKs interact with PI3K and contribute to radioresistance in thyroid-carcinomas is unknown.

Potential Clinical Utility of Copeptin (C-terminal provasopressin) measurements in clinical medicine.

Copeptin is a 39-amino-acids containing glycosylated peptide derived from the C-terminal part of the arginine vasopressin (AVP) precursor. In the process of proteolysis the AVP precursor is processed to AVP, neurophysin II, and copeptin in equimolar amounts. In contrast to AVP, copeptin remains stable for several days at room temperature in serum or plasma.

Effect of Experimental Thyrotoxicosis onto Blood Coagulation: A Proteomics Study.

Background: Hyperthyroidism is known to induce a hypercoagulable state. It stimulates plasma levels of procoagulative factors and reduces fibrinolytic activity. So far most of the data have been derived from patients with endogenous hyperthyroidism with a wide variability in the underlying pathogenesis and severity of the disease.

Copeptin under glucagon stimulation.

Stimulation of growth hormone (GH) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) secretion by glucagon is a standard procedure to assess pituitary dysfunction but the pathomechanism of glucagon action remains unclear. As arginine vasopressin (AVP) may act on the release of both, GH and ACTH, we tested here the role of AVP in GST by measuring a stable precursor fragment, copeptin, which is stoichiometrically secreted with AVP in a 1:1 ratio. ACTH, cortisol, GH, and copeptin were measured at 0, 60, 90, 120, 150, and 180 min during GST in 79 subjects: healthy controls (Group 1, n = 32), subjects with pituitary disease, but with adequate cortisol and GH responses during GST (Group 2, n = 29), and those with overt hypopituitarism (Group 3, n = 18).

Testosterone to dihydrotestosterone ratio as a new biomarker for an adverse metabolic phenotype in the polycystic ovary syndrome.

Context: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a heterogeneous disease with many different aspects, including hyperandrogenism and metabolic disturbances. Clinical phenotypes show different patterns of steroid hormones that have been investigated to some extent.

Objective: This study intended to determine the role of the testosterone (TT) to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) ratio (TT/DHT ratio) in PCOS patients and to further assess the correlation of this ratio with hormonal, anthropometric, and metabolic parameters.

Intranasal insulin suppresses systemic but not subcutaneous lipolysis in healthy humans.

Context: Insulin infused into the central nervous system of rats suppresses lipolysis in white adipose tissue, indicating a role of brain insulin in regulating systemic lipid metabolism.

Objective: We investigated whether central nervous insulin delivery suppresses lipolysis in healthy humans.

Design: Placebo-controlled, balanced within-subject comparisons were performed in both a main and an independent corroborative experiment.

Copeptin as a marker for arginine-vasopressin/antidiuretic hormone secretion in the diagnosis of paraneoplastic syndrome of inappropriate ADH secretion.

Direct measurement of arginine-vasopressin/antidiuretic hormone (AVP/ADH) concentrations is not included in the standard diagnostic procedures for paraneoplastic syndrome of inappropriate ADH secretion (SIADH). Here, we evaluate the potential of copeptin measurement as a surrogate marker of AVP/ADH secretion for the direct diagnosis of suspected SIADH in cancer patients. Forty-six unselected cancer patients with serum sodium concentrations permanently below 135 mmol/L were included in this study.

Aberrant activation of CD8+ T-cell and CD8+ T-cell subsets in patients with newly diagnosed IDDM.

Two- and three-color cytofluorimetric techniques were used to study the expression patterns of the activation antigen HLA-DR on peripheral blood immunoregulatory T-cells from 25 patients with newly diagnosed insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and 14 age- and sex-matched control subjects. The mean percentage of total activated (CD3+HLA-DR+) T-cells was significantly elevated in the IDDM group compared with the control group (P < 0.001).

Cathepsin D in normal and neoplastic thyroid tissues.

Background: Cathepsin D is a widely distributed lysosomal acidic endopeptidase. It is an estrogen-regulated protein that is a prognostic factor in breast cancer. The aim of this study was to measure cathepsin D concentrations in thyroid tissues and to correlate these concentrations with clinical and pathologic parameters.

Identification of placental human growth hormone as the growth hormone-V gene expression product.

A GH variant of placental origin, placental GH, has recently been shown to replace pituitary GH in maternal serum during pregnancy. Besides, the GH variant (GH-V) gene has been demonstrated to be expressed in the placenta. The similarities between their known properties strongly suggest that the placental GH and the GH-V protein are the same molecular species.