First-trimester prenatal treatment with glucocorticoid (GC) dexamethasone (DEX) in pregnancies at risk for classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is associated with ethical dilemmas. Though effective in reducing virilisation in girls with CAH, it entails exposure to high doses of GC in fetuses that do not benefit from the treatment. The current paper provides an update on the literature on outcomes of prenatal DEX treatment in CAH cases and unaffected subjects. Long-term follow-up research is still needed to determine treatment safety. In addition, advances in early prenatal diagnostics for CAH and sex-typing as well as studies assessing dosing effects of DEX may avoid unnecessary treatment and improve treatment safety.
Annelies van’t Westeinde, Leif Karlsson, Valeria Messina, Lena Wallensteen, Manuela Brösamle, Giorgio Dal Maso, Alessandro Lazzerini, Jette Kristensen, Diana Kwast, Lea Tschaidse, Matthias K Auer, Hanna F Nowotny, Luca Persani, Nicole Reisch, and Svetlana Lajic
Niek F Dirks, Etienne Cavalier, and Annemieke C Heijboer
The measurement of vitamin D metabolites aids in assessing vitamin D status and in diagnosing disorders of calcium homeostasis. Most laboratories measure total 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), while others have taken the extra effort to measure 25(OH)D2 and 25(OH)D3 separately and additional metabolites such as 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D and 24,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. The aim of this review is to provide an updated overview of the main markers of vitamin D metabolism, define the intended measurands, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the two most widely used assays, automated assays and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Whether using the easy and fast automated assays or the more complex LC-MS/MS, one should know the pitfalls of the used technique in order to interpret the measurements. In conclusion, automated assays are unable to accurately measure 25(OH)D in all patient groups, including persons using D2. In these cases, an LC-MS/MS method, when appropriately developed and standardized, produces a more reliable measurement.
Estelle Bonnet, Mathias Winter, Delphine Mallet, Ingrid Plotton, Claire Bouvattier, Maryse Cartigny, Laetiti Martinerie, Michel Polak, Anne Bachelot, Frédéric Huet, Sabine Baron, Muriel Houang, Sylvie Soskin, Anne Lienhardt, Jérôme Bertherat, Cyril Amouroux, Aurore Bouty, Lise Duranteau, Rémi Besson, Alaa El Ghoneimi, Dinane Samara-Boustani, François Becmeur, Nicolas Kalfa, Françoise Paris, François Medjkane, Aude Brac de la Perrière, Patricia Bretones, Hervé Lejeune, Marc Nicolino, Pierre Mouriquand, Daniela-Brindusa Gorduza, and Claire-Lise Gay
Objectives
To examine the changes in diagnostic practices and clinical management of patients with 5α-reductase type 2 (SRD5A2) or 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 3 (HSD17B3) deficiency since molecular diagnoses became available.
Methods
Clinical, laboratory, and therapeutic data were retrieved from the medical records of 52 patients with a molecular diagnosis of SRD5A2 (n = 31) or HSD17B3 (n = 21) deficiency. Temporal trends regarding age at assessment and initial sex assignment over 1994–2020 were qualitatively analyzed. Age at molecular diagnosis was compared between two subgroups of patients according to their year of birth.
Results
Fifty-eight percent (n = 30) patients were diagnosed during the perinatal period, 33% (n = 17) during infancy, and 9% (n = 5) during adolescence or adulthood. Over the studied period, the patients’ age at initial assessment and diagnosis frankly decreased. The median (range) age at diagnostic confirmation was 10.5 (0–53.2) years for patients born before 2007 and 0.4 (0–9.3) years for those born in 2007 or later (P = 0.029). Genetic testing identified 27 different variants for the SRD5A2 gene (30% novel, n = 8) and 18 for the HSD17B3 gene (44% novel, n = 8). Before 2002, most patients were initially assigned as females (95%, n = 19), but this proportion dropped for those born later (44%, n = 14; P < 0.001). The influence of initial genital appearance on these decisions seemingly decreased in the most recent years. Therapeutic interventions differed according to the sex of rearing. Ten percent (n = 2) patients requested female-to-male reassignment during adulthood.
Conclusion
This study showed, over the past two decades, a clear trend toward earlier diagnosis and assignment of affected newborns as males.
S C Clement, W E Visser, C A Lebbink, D Albano, H L Claahsen-van der Grinten, A Czarniecka, R P Dias, M P Dierselhuis, I Dzivite-Krisane, R Elisei, A Garcia-Burillo, L Izatt, C Kanaka-Gantenbein, H Krude, L Lamartina, K Lorenz, M Luster, R Navardauskaitė, M Negre Busó, K Newbold, R P Peeters, G Pellegriti, A Piccardo, A L Priego, A Redlich, L de Sanctis, M Sobrinho-Simões, A S P van Trotsenburg, F A Verburg, M Vriens, T P Links, S F Ahmed, and H M van Santen
Background
Although differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) is the most frequent endocrine pediatric cancer, it is rare in childhood and adolescence. While tumor persistence and recurrence are not uncommon, mortality remains extremely low. Complications of treatment are however reported in up to 48% of the survivors. Due to the rarity of the disease, current treatment guidelines are predominantly based on the results of small observational retrospective studies and extrapolations from results in adult patients. In order to develop more personalized treatment and follow-up strategies (aiming to reduce complication rates), there is an unmet need for uniform international prospective data collection and clinical trials.
Methods and analysis
The European pediatric thyroid carcinoma registry aims to collect clinical data for all patients ≤18 years of age with a confirmed diagnosis of DTC who have been diagnosed, assessed, or treated at a participating site. This registry will be a component of the wider European Registries for Rare Endocrine Conditions project which has close links to Endo-ERN, the European Reference Network for Rare Endocrine Conditions. A multidisciplinary expert working group was formed to develop a minimal dataset comprising information regarding demographic data, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome. We constructed an umbrella-type registry, with a detailed basic dataset. In the future, this may provide the opportunity for research teams to integrate clinical research questions.
Ethics and dissemination
Written informed consent will be obtained from all participants and/or their parents/guardians. Summaries and descriptive analyses of the registry will be disseminated via conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications.
Sriharsha Gunna, Mahaveer Singh, Rakesh Pandey, Rungmei S K Marak, Amita Aggarwal, Bibhuti Mohanta, Liping Yu, and Eesh Bhatia
The etiology, presentation and mortality of patients with primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) in developing countries may differ from economically developed nations. However, information in this regard is scanty. The aim of this study was to determine the etiology and compare the clinical characteristics and mortality in infectious and autoimmune causes of PAI in Indian patients. All eligible (n = 89) patients (ages 15–83 years) diagnosed with PAI between 2006 and 2019 were studied. Patients were followed for a median duration of 5.9 (range 0.1–15.7) years. Eighty-six subjects underwent an abdominal computerized tomography scan or ultrasonography, and adrenal biopsy was performed in 60 patients. The most frequent etiologies of PAI were adrenal histoplasmosis (AH, 45%), adrenal tuberculosis (AT, 15%), autoimmunity (AI, 25%) and primary lymphoma (6%). Forty-two percent of patients presented with an acute adrenal crisis. AH and AT could not be differentiated on the basis of clinical features, except for a greater frequency of hepatomegaly–splenomegaly and type 2 diabetes mellitus (63% vs 15%, P < 0.01) in the former. Patients with an autoimmune etiology had a higher frequency of 21-hydroxylase antibodies (41% vs 3%) and autoimmune thyroid disease (46% vs 5%) vs those with infectious etiologies. Mortality was significantly higher in AH (45%) compared with AT (8%) or AI (5%) (P = 0.001). Causes of death included adrenal crises, progressive AH and unexplained acute events occurring at home. In conclusion, infections, especially AH, were the most frequent cause of PAI in north India. Despite appropriate therapy, AH had very high mortality as compared with AT and AI.
Qian Deng, Yue Zhu, Mengmeng Zhang, Aihua Fei, Jiaqi Liang, Jinjin Zheng, Qingping Zhang, Tong Cheng, and Xia Ge
Diabetes is a complex metabolic disease. In recent years, diabetes and its chronic complications have become a health hotspot of global concern. It is very important to find promising therapeutic targets and directions. Ferroptosis is a new type of programmed cell death that is different from cell necrosis, apoptosis, and autophagy. Ferroptosis is mainly characterized by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation. With the reduction of the anti-oxidative capacity of cells, the accumulated reactive lipid oxygen species will cause oxidative cell death and lead to ferroptosis at lethal levels. Recent studies have shown that ferroptosis plays an important regulatory role in the initiation and development of diabetes, as well as various complications of diabetes. In this review, we will summarize new findings related to ferroptosis and diabetic complications and propose ferroptosis as a potential target for treating diabetic complications.
Clemens Kamrath, Alexander Eckert, Birgit Rami-Merhar, Sebastian Kummer, Martin Wabitsch, Katharina Laubner, Florian Kopp, Silvia Müther, Steffen Mühldorfer, and Reinhard W Holl
Objective
To investigate the frequency, treatment, and outcome of patients with diabetes due to severe insulin resistance syndromes (SIRS).
Research Design and Methods
Based on data from the multicenter prospective Diabetes Registry DPV, we analyzed diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of 636,777 patients with diabetes from 1995 to 2022.
Results
Diabetes due to SIRS was documented in 67 cases (62.7% females), 25 (37%) had lipodystrophies (LD) and 42 (63%) had congenital defects of insulin signaling. The relative frequency compared to type 1 diabetes (T1D) was about 1:2300. Median age at diabetes diagnosis in patients with SIRS was 14.8 years (interquartile range (IQR) 12.8–33.8).
A total of 38 patients with SIRS (57%) received insulin and 34 (51%) other antidiabetics, mostly metformin. As high as 16% of patients with LD were treated with fibrates. Three out of eight patients with generalized LD (37.5%) were treated with metreleptin and one patient with Rabson–Mendenhall syndrome was treated with recombinant insulin-like growth factor 1.
The median glycated hemoglobin level at follow-up was 7.1% (54 mmol/mol). Patients with LD had higher triglycerides than patients with T1D and T2D (P < 0.001 and P = 0.022, respectively), and also significantly higher liver enzymes and lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol than patients with T1D (P < 0.001).
Patients with insulin receptor disorders were significantly less likely to be treated with antihypertensive medication than patients with T2D (P = 0.042), despite having similar levels of hypertension.
Conclusions
Diabetes due to SIRS is rarely diagnosed and should be suspected in lean children or young adults without classical T1D. Awareness of cardiovascular risk factors in these patients should be raised.
Chenyu Jiang, Mi Zhou, Huai Bai, Meng Chen, Chunyi Yang, Kaifeng Hu, Yujie Wu, Qingqing Liu, Yangyu Zhao, Xinghui Liu, and Ping Fan
Oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathophysiology of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). We investigated the relationship between NADPH oxidase p22phox subunit (CYBA) C242T (rs4673) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) G-463A (rs2333227) genetic variants and GDM in 719 patients with GDM and 1205 control women. Clinical, metabolic, and oxidative stress parameters were analyzed. We found that frequencies of the A allele (15.6% vs 12.3%) and GA + AA genotype (28.5% vs 23.2%) of the MPO G-463A variation were significantly higher in patients with GDM than in the control women (OR = 1.318, 95% CI: 1.068–1.625, P = 0.010 for the dominant model; OR = 1.999, 95% CI: 1.040–3.843, P = 0.034 for the recessive model; OR = 1.320, 95% CI: 1.095–1.591, P = 0.004 for the allele model). Genotype GA + AA remained a significant predictor of GDM in a logistic regression model including age and BMI at delivery (OR = 1.282, 95% CI: 1.037‒1.583, P = 0.021). Furthermore, the ‒463A allele was associated with higher TG and the 242T allele was related to higher pre-pregnancy BMI and oxidative stress index in all subjects (P < 0.05). The 242T allele was also associated with higher homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance but lower serum total antioxidant capacity in patients with GDM (P < 0.05). We conclude that the MPO G-463A, but not the CYBA C242T, genetic variation is associated with an increased risk of GDM in Chinese women. These two genetic polymorphisms may be linked to obesity, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress.
Claus H Gravholt, Alberto Ferlin, Joerg Gromoll, Anders Juul, Armin Raznahan, Sophie van Rijn, Alan D Rogol, Anne Skakkebæk, Nicole Tartaglia, and Hanna Swaab
The 3rd International Workshop on Klinefelter Syndrome, Trisomy X, and 47,XYY syndrome was held in Leiden, the Netherlands, on September 12–14, 2022.
Here, we review new data presented at the workshop and discuss scientific and clinical trajectories. We focus on shortcomings in knowledge and therefore point out future areas for research.
We focus on the genetics and genomics of supernumerary sex chromosome syndromes with new data being presented. Most knowledge centre specifically on Klinefelter syndrome, where aspects on testosterone deficiency and the relation to bone, muscle and fat were discussed, as was infertility and the treatment thereof. Both trisomy X and 47,XYY syndrome are frequently affected by infertility.
Transitioning of males with Klinefelter syndrome was addressed, as this seemingly simple process in practise is often difficult.
It is now realized that neurocognitive changes are pervasive in all supernumerary sex chromosome syndromes, which were extensively discussed. New intervention projects were also described, and exciting new data concerning these were presented.
Advocacy organizations were present, describing the enormous burden carried by parents when having to explain their child’s specific syndrome to most professionals whenever in contact with health care and education systems. It was also pointed out that most countries do not have health care systems that diagnose patients with supernumerary sex chromosome syndromes, thus pinpointing a clear deficiency in the current genetic testing and care models.
At the end of the workshop, a roadmap towards the development of new international clinical care guidelines for Klinefelter syndrome was decided.
Xiaohui Weng, Gehong Li, Ziwei Liu, Rui Liu, Zhaoyang Liu, Songyang Wang, Shishun Zhao, Xiaotong Ma, and Zhiyong Chang
Studies have found differences in the concentration of volatile organic compounds in the breath of diabetics and healthy people, prompting attention to the use of devices such as electronic noses to detect diabetes. In this study, we explored the design of a non-invasive diabetes preliminary screening system that uses a homemade electronic nose sensor array to detect respiratory gas markers. In the algorithm part, two feature extraction methods were adopted, gradient boosting method was used to select promising feature subset, and then particle swarm optimization algorithm was introduced to extract 24 most effective features, which reduces the number of sensors by 56% and saves the system cost. Respiratory samples were collected from 120 healthy subjects and 120 diabetic subjects to assess the system performance. Random forest algorithm was used to classify and predict electronic nose data, and the accuracy can reach 93.33%. Experimental results show that on the premise of ensuring accuracy, the system has low cost and small size after the number of sensors is optimized, and it is easy to install on in-car. It provides a more feasible method for the preliminary screening of diabetes on in-car and can be used as an assistant to the existing detection methods.
