EndoBridge 2023: highlights and pearls.

EndoBridge 2023 took place on October 20-22, 2023, in Antalya, Turkey. Accredited by the European Council, the 3-day scientific program of the 11th Annual Meeting of EndoBridge included state-of-the-art lectures and interactive small group discussion sessions incorporating interesting and challenging clinical cases led by globally recognized leaders in the field and was well attended by a highly diverse audience. Following its established format over the years, the program provided a comprehensive update across all aspects of endocrinology and metabolism, including topics in pituitary, thyroid, bone, and adrenal disorders, neuroendocrine tumors, diabetes mellitus, obesity, nutrition, and lipid disorders. As usual, the meeting was held in English with simultaneous translation into Russian, Arabic, and Turkish. The abstracts of clinical cases presented by the delegates during oral and poster sessions have been published in JCEM Case Reports. Herein, we provide a paper on highlights and pearls of the meeting sessions covering a wide range of subjects, from thyroid nodule stratification to secondary osteoporosis and from glycemic challenges in post-bariatric surgery to male hypogonadism. This report emphasizes the latest developments in the field, along with clinical approaches to common endocrine issues. The 12th annual meeting of EndoBridge will be held on October 17-20, 2024 in Antalya, Turkey.

The impact of obesity: a narrative review.

Obesity is a disease with a major negative impact on human health. However, people with obesity may not perceive their weight to be a significant problem and less than half of patients with obesity are advised by their physicians to lose weight. The purpose of this review is to highlight the importance of managing overweight and obesity by discussing the adverse consequences and impact of obesity. In summary, obesity is strongly related to >50 medical conditions, with many of them having evidence from Mendelian randomisation studies to support causality. The clinical, social and economic burdens of obesity are considerable, with these burdens potentially impacting future generations as well. This review highlights the adverse health and economic consequences of obesity and the importance of an urgent and concerted effort towards the prevention and management of obesity to reduce the burden of obesity.

SGLT inhibitors on weight and body mass: A meta-analysis of 116 randomized-controlled trials.

OBJECTIVE: Multiple trials have demonstrated the metabolic effects of sodium/glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors in patients regardless of diabetes status, and recent trials have been conducted on the combined sodium/glucose cotransporter 1 and sodium/glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT1/SGLT2) inhibitors. Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the weight reduction effects and dose-response relationship of SGLT inhibitors and to assess the relative efficacy of SGLT1/SGLT2 inhibitors. METHODS: Four electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, and Scopus) were searched on November 21, 2020, for articles published from January 1, 2000, up to November 21, 2020. RESULTS: In total, 116 randomized-controlled trials were included, with a combined cohort of 98,497 patients. Overall, patients had a mean weight reduction of -1.79 kg (95% CI: -1.93 to -1.66, p < 0.001) compared with placebo. This effect was observed across diabetes status, duration of follow-up, various comorbidities, and all SGLT drug types. Mean BMI changes were -0.71 kg/m2 (95% CI: -0.94 to -0.47, p < 0.001) compared with placebo. Canagliflozin, empagliflozin, sotagliflozin, and licogliflozin showed a dose-response relationship for mean weight change. Compared with SGLT2 inhibitors, SGLT1/SGLT2 inhibitors had a significantly larger reduction in weight. CONCLUSIONS: SGLT inhibitors demonstrated weight reduction benefits in this meta-analysis. Further studies are needed to clarify their role in weight management.

Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Type 2 Diabetes: A Meta-Analysis.

Objective: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is highly prevalent in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Studies on glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease have reported promising results. Despite this, there has been limited evidence of its efficacy in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. This meta-analysis examined existing evidence on the efficacy of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists on the management of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods: Medline, Embase and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) were searched for articles discussing the efficacy of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Values of standardized mean differences (SMD) and risk ratio (RR) were determined for continuous outcomes and dichotomous outcomes respectively. Results: 8 studies involving 1,454 patients from 5 randomized controlled trials and 3 cohort studies were included in the analysis. Our analysis found significant improvements in hepatic fat content, liver biochemistry, body composition, glucose parameters, lipid parameters, insulin sensitivity and inflammatory markers following glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist treatment. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists significantly decreased hepatic fat content compared to metformin and insulin-based therapies. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists also improved fibrosis markers, but this did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion: With a high prevalence of obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist treatment shows promise in improving both diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease phenotype.

Severe Symptomatic Hypophosphataemia as a Complication of Parenteral Iron Replacement.

Parental iron replacement is given to patients with severe iron deficiency or intolerance to oral iron. Hypophosphataemia has been reported to occur as a complication of parental iron replacement, and is postulated to be related to the carbohydrate moieties used in the parenteral preparations. Hypophosphataemia is under-diagnosed as symptoms such as fatigue, muscle weakness and poor effort tolerance mimic anaemia. Severe hypophosphataemia (<0.32 mmol/l) can result in significant complications such as confusion, rhabdomyolysis and arrhythmias. We report a patient with recurrent admissions for non-specific symptoms attributed to iron deficiency anaemia who received multiple doses of parenteral ferric carboxymaltose (FCM). He was found to have severe hypophosphataemia, with further evaluation showing increased renal phosphate wasting and elevated serum levels of fibroblast-growth-factor 23 (FGF23). FCM was stopped and he was given high-dose oral iron supplementation, with no further episodes of hypophosphataemia. LEARNING POINTS: The carbohydrate moieties used in parenteral iron preparations are different, and may have a dose-dependent relationship with the development of hypophosphataemia.The mechanism by which hypophosphataemia occurs after parenteral iron replacement is related to increased serum levels of FGF23, which increases renal phosphate wasting.The serum phosphate levels of patients receiving parenteral iron replacement (especially ferric carboxymaltose or iron polymaltose) should be routinely monitored for hypophosphataemia, which is an under-diagnosed complication.

Sodium-Glucose Co-Transporter 2 Inhibitors for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Asian Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Meta-Analysis.

Objective: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a very common disorder among patients with type 2 diabetes and may share causal relationship. Type 2 diabetes is a risk factor for progression and potential poor outcomes in NAFLD patients. This meta-analysis aimed to analyze the current evidence of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), a glucose-lowering drug to improve NAFLD in patients with Type 2 Diabetes. Methods: Medline, Embase and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched for articles examining efficacy of SGLT2i on treatments of NAFLD in type 2 diabetes in July 2020, and articles were sieved. Continuous data were extracted in the form of mean and standard deviation and were pooled with standardized mean difference (SMD). Results: 10 articles involving 555 patients from seven randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and three cohort studies, were included in this meta-analysis. Our analysis revealed significant improvements in hepatic fat content (after treatment: -0.789 (-1.404 to -0.175), p = 0.012; compared with control: -0.923 (-1.562 to -0.285), p = 0.005), AST (After Treatment: -0.539 (-0.720 to -0.357), p < 0.001; compared with control: -0.421 (-0.680 to -0.161), p = 0.001), ALT (after treatment: -0.633 (-0.892 to -0.373), p < 0.001; compared with Control: -0.468 (-0.685 to -0.251), p < 0.001), body composition (BMI: after treatment: -0.225 (-0.456 to 0.005), p = 0.055; compared with Control: -1.092 (-2.032 to -0.153), p = 0.023), glycemic control (HbA1c: After Treatment: -0.701 (-1.098 to -0.303), p = 0.001; compared with control: -0.210 (-0.603 to 0.183), p = 0.295), lipid parameters (Triglycerides: after treatment: -0.230 (-0.409 to -0.052), p = 0.011; compared with control: -0.336 (-0.597 to -0.076), p = 0.011), inflammatory markers (serum ferritin: after treatment: -0.409 (-0.694 to -0.124), p = 0.005; compared with control: -0.814 (-1.688 to 0.059), p = 0.068) after SGLT2i treatment, and when compared against controls. There was a trend in the improvement in fibrosis markers after SGLT2i treatment. Conclusions: SGLT2i is an effective treatment to improve NAFLD among patients with type 2 diabetes. Further studies are needed to understand the direct and indirect effects of SGLT2i on NAFLD and if SGLT2i could prevent the progression of NAFLD or NASH. SGLT2i could potentially be considered for patients with type 2 diabetes and NAFLD, if there are no contraindications.