Etiology of hypopituitarism in tertiary care institutions in Turkish population: analysis of 773 patients from Pituitary Study Group database.

Hypopituitarism in adult life is commonly acquired and the main causes are known as pituitary tumors and/or their treatments. Since there are new insights into the etiology of hypopituitarism and presence of differences in various populations, more studies regarding causes of hypopituitarism are needed to be done in different ethnic groups with sufficient number of patients. Therefore, we performed a multi-center database study in Turkish population investigating the etiology of hypopituitarism in 773 patients in tertiary care institutions. The study was designed and coordinated by the Pituitary Study Group of SEMT (The Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism of Turkey). Nineteen tertiary reference centers (14 university hospitals and 5 training hospitals) from the different regions of Turkey participated in the study. It is a cross-sectional database study, and the data were recorded for 18 months. We mainly classified the causes of hypopituitarism as pituitary tumors (due to direct effects of the pituitary tumors and/or their treatments), extra-pituitary tumors and non-tumoral causes. Mean age of 773 patients (49.8 % male, 50.2 % female) was 43.9 ± 16.1 years (range 16-84 years). The most common etiology of pituitary dysfunction was due to non-tumoral causes (49.2 %) among all patients. However, when we analyze the causes according to gender, the most common etiology in males was pituitary tumors, but the most common etiology in females was non-tumoral causes. According to the subgroup analysis of the causes of hypopituitarism in all patients, the most common four causes of hypopituitarism which have frequencies over 10 % were as follows: non-secretory pituitary adenomas, Sheehan's syndrome, lactotroph adenomas and idiopathic. With regard to the type of hormonal deficiencies; FSH/LH deficiency was the most common hormonal deficit (84.9 % of the patients). In 33.8 % of the patients, 4 anterior pituitary hormone deficiencies (FSH/LH, ACTH, TSH, and GH) were present. Among all patients, the most frequent cause of hypopituitarism was non-secretory pituitary adenomas. However, in female patients, present study clearly demonstrates that Sheehan's syndrome is still one of the most important causes of hypopituitarism in Turkish population. Further, population-based prospective studies need to be done to understand the prevalence and incidence of the causes of hypopituitarism in different countries.

The therapy of Cushing's disease in adults and children: an update.

Cushing's disease (CD) is a rare endocrine disorder resulting from excessive production of adrenocorticotrophin hormone by a pituitary adenoma. The consequent hypercortisolaemia gives rise to characteristic features of the disease and its morbidities. Treatments aim to restore normal cortisol levels, provide long-term control of the disease and the tumour, and the improvement of patient well-being. The first line of treatment remains transsphenoidal surgery with remission rates of 65-90% in CD secondary to a pituitary microadenoma. Second-line treatment includes repeat surgery, radiotherapy, medical therapy, and bilateral adrenalectomy. The success rate of radiotherapy ranges from 46% to 74% and is probably independent of the mode of delivery of the radiation, but may take several years to become effective. Medical therapy is useful in acutely unwell patients or while awaiting radiotherapy to become effective. The most often-used medical agents include metyrapone and ketoconazole, which inhibit steroidogenesis; less often, centrally-acting drugs or a glucocorticoid receptor blocker are used, but experience with them is more limited. Bilateral adrenalectomy remains an important treatment option to control unresponsive severe hypercortisolism, particularly in patients with severe CD.The management of childhood CD does not differ from adult disease, with transsphenoidal surgery as successful as in adults but radiotherapy is more rapid in onset. Regardless of the age of the patient, Cushing's disease remains a challenge to the physician and requires a multidisciplinary approach to achieve the most desirable outcome.

Newly diagnosed hyperglycemia and stress hyperglycemia in a coronary intensive care unit.

AIMS: To determine prevalence of newly diagnosed hyperglycemia (NDH) among patients with acute coronary disease, inquire relationship of stress hyperglycemia (SH) with functional outcomes. METHODS: Admission (APG) and first morning fasting plasma glucose (FPG) measurements were obtained, capillary glucose measurements (CGM) every 6-h within first day were performed-Group 1: Normoglycemics. Group 2: NDH cases: No known diabetes, APG>200mg/dl and/or FPG>126 and/or any of CGM>200. Group 2a: unrecognized glycemic disorder, HbA1c>6.0%. Group 2b: stress hyperglycemia, HbA1c<6.0%. Group 3: Recognized diabetes. Duration of ICU stays, APACHE-II scores were recorded. Logistic regression analysis was performed using ICU stay as dependent variable and age, groups, co-morbidities, problems in hospital, APACHE-II scores, CGMs were used as independent risk factors. RESULTS: There were 255 (51.6%) in Group 1, 82 (16.6%) in Group 2; 37 (7.5%) cases in Group 2a, 45 (9.1%) in Group 2b and 157 (31.8%) in Group 3. Group 2b spent longer time in ICU, had higher APACHE-II scores (p=0.0001, p=0.0001). Regression analysis demonstrated SH as an independent risk factor for duration of ICU stay (OR: 2.8, 95% CI: 1.3-6.2). CONCLUSIONS: Hyperglycemia was present in 48.4%; 16.6% had NDH, 9.1% had SH. Poor functional conditions of SH cases pointed that they need to be considered carefully.

Subclinical hypothyroidism is characterized by increased QT interval dispersion among women.

OBJECTIVE: Increased QT interval dispersion (QTd) is an electrocardiographic parameter shown to be associated with malignant ventricular arrhythmias and sudden death, and QT dispersion corrected for heart rate (QTc) has emerged as a potentially important predictor of cardiac death. Increased QTd has been detected to be directly related to thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels in overt hypothyroidism, however not much is known about subclinical hypothyroidism (SH). This study was conducted to investigate the QTc in SH and determine the changes following normalization of TSH levels with L-thyroxine. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Fifty-eight women with naive SH due to Hashimoto's thyroiditis, mean age 39.37 +/- 10.43 years, and 54 age-, sex- and weight-matched controls with normal TSH were included after exclusion of any factor that might interfere with cardiac conductibility. Electrocardiographic measurements were performed with a magnifier and Bazett's formula was used to calculate QTc. The patients were separated into two groups regarding basal TSH levels (subgroup A: 5 > TSH > 10 mIU/l, n = 36; subgroup B: TSH > 10 mIU/l, n = 22). L-Thyroxine 1-2 microg/kg/day was administered to subgroup B. RESULTS: Mean QTc interval of the study group was significantly longer than that of the control group (100 +/- 30 vs. 76 +/- 30 ms, p = 0.000). It was also longer in subgroup A (5 > TSH > 10 mIU/l, n = 36) and subgroup B (p = 0.001, p = 0.000, respectively). In subgroup B, following normalization of serum TSH, mean post-treatment QTc measurement was similar to that of the control group (75 +/- 40 vs. 76 +/- 30 ms, p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: We detected prolonged QTc among SH cases. Prolongation remained significant for the whole group as well as the two subgroups. The differences in QTc were corrected when TSH levels of >10 mIU/l returned to normal.

Silent coronary artery disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence and risk factors of silent CAD in asymptomatic type 2 diabetic patients aged over 40 years. A total of 172 asymptomatic type 2 diabetic patients, mean age 54.42 years, with normal resting electrocardiogram were included in the study. Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) tetrofosmin cardiac single photon emission computed tomography myocardial scintigraphy with exercise testing or dipyridamole injection was performed on all patients. If this test was positive, coronary angiography was carried out and was considered to be positive with a stenosis of > or =70%. Abnormal perfusion pattern was found in 14 patients (8.14%). Significant coronary artery stenosis was found in 13 subjects (7.56%), confirming a high positive predictive value (92.86%) of this diagnostic procedure. A significant correlation was observed between silent CAD and male sex, retinopathy, hypertension, post-prandial blood glucose level, and low HDL-cholesterol level. Sex (OR=4.026; 95% CI, 1.187-13.659), hypertension (OR=5.564; 95% CI, 1.446-21.400) and retinopathy (OR=3.766; 95% CI, 1.096-12.948) were risk factors for CAD. Overall, 14.06% of asymptomatic male patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus presented silent CAD with significant angiographically documented coronary stenosis. This finding, along with the high positive predictive value of a noninvasive technique, indicates that routine screening for silent CAD would be useful in this patient subgroup especially when they have retinopathy or hypertension.