In this issue of the Archives of Endocrinology and Metabolism (AE&M), the use of 3T Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) for the evaluation of patients with thyroid nodules (TNs) is addressed in a very interesting prospective study by Aghaghazvini and cols (). The new field in biological science, Metabolomics, makes use of analytical and standard recognition approaches and bioinformatics (,). The metabolome is the final downstream product of gene expression reflecting changes in transcriptome and proteome (). Metabolic, histological and cytological […]

The sentinel lymph node procedure is a technique that aims, with minimal surgical invasion, to diagnose lymph node metastasis and, later, to define the prescribed treatment: full lymph node dissections, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and others. It requires tools such as lymphographies, scintigraphies and surgical approaches followed by anatomopathological and immunohistochemical analyses (). Its use began in the 1960s in facial epidermoid carcinomas. In the 1970s, it was incorporated in the treatment of penile carcinomas and, in the last 20 years, it […]

In spite of its stagnant gross appearance, the skeleton is a highly metabolically active organ. The continuous process of bone remodeling, allowing homeostatic availability of calcium and renovation of the important structural material of bone, requires ample energy supply (). Extreme examples of such energy demand had been noticed a long time ago in high bone turnover states, for instance in the cachexia accompanying severe hyperparathyroidism or in slender children with osteogenesis imperfecta, but lacked an explanation. Therefore, when the […]

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine neoplasia, and its incidence has increased dramatically in several countries during the last three decades (). This phenomenon has been attributed to overdiagnosis due to a combination of improvements in new imaging techniques, especially high-resolution ultrasound, and increased access of patients to health care systems (). Irrespective of controversies regarding whether the growing number of thyroid cancer diagnoses is attributable to overdiagnosis alone () or reflects an actual increase in cases (-), the […]

Both type 1 (T1D) and type 2 (T2D) diabetes mellitus are complex diseases to which environmental and genetic factors contribute (). Recently, epigenetic factors have also been recognized as important not only in the etiopathogenesis of these conditions, but also in the development of their chronic complications (). As if the interaction among environment, genetics and epigenetics is not complex enough, each of these factors has their own complexity. For instance, regarding the genetic setting, both T1D and T2D are […]

This issue of “Archives of Endocrinology and Metabolism” features two papers about type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Pacheco and cols. report the results of a structured education program for adults with T1DM from a single center in the south of Brazil. The education strategy consisted of workshops, individualized care and 24-hour distant support (). The design of the program was inspired by the educational support provided in the Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating Study (DAFNE), performed in the UK (). […]

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Patients presenting with a thyroid nodule are common in the clinical practice of endocrinologists, even for those who are not thyroidologists. When seeing a patient with a thyroid nodule, the question that typically occurs first is whether the nodule could be malignant and how can the diagnosis be most efficiently and accurately determined. Then, once a diagnosis of cancer might be confirmed, and discussion turns to details about management, the next prominent question in the patient’s mind relates to their […]

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a medical condition that has motivated many debates in the last decades regarding its etiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment and long-term consequences to the mother and to the fetus. Women who develop GDM present a metabolic condition similar to that found in type 2 diabetes (T2D) characterized by insulin resistance associated with inadequate insulin secretion (). Due to similar pathophysiologic mechanisms found between T2D and GDM, there is a great interest in finding markers that will […]

Disease definitions often rely on cutoff values chosen to help distinguish a pathological condition from a healthy state. This is particularly true in endocrinology, where hormone hypersecretion or hyposecretion needs to be distinguished from physiological secretion. In general, endocrinological disease states are associated with clearly pathological hormone levels, largely above or below the proposed diagnostic cutoff. In acromegaly for example (,), most patients have obvious clinical signs and IGF-I levels markedly above the upper normal limit (ULN). But how is […]