Endocrine tumors of the pancreas.

Neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas are rare neoplasms of the heterogeneous group of neuroendocrine gastroenteropancreatic tumors that originate from totipotential stem cells or preexisting endocrine cells within the pancreas. Most neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas are benign or show an indolent course of disease.A subset of them shows a very aggressive behavior, becomes highly malignant, and metastasizes early with life-limiting consequences. An effective disease-management includes the diagnostic approach with hormonal testing and localization and surgical treatment with histologic classification in combination with biotherapy, chemotherapy, or therapy with radionucleotides, de-pending on the individual behavior of the tumor. The primary goal is the improvement of symptoms leading to an acceptable quality of life in the individual patient.     

The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire in Males at High and Low Risk for Alcoholism

Cloninger has proposed a tridimensional model as the basis for the classification of personality variants and has developed the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) as an empirical test of this model. In this study, the TPQ was administered to two groups of young men. One group was comprised of nonalcoholic sons of male alcoholics; the other group consisted of nonalcoholic men with no family history of alcoholism. Since the sons of male alcoholics are considered to be at greater risk to develop alcoholism than the sons of nonalcoholics, it was hypothesized that the two groups would demonstrate differences with regard to one or more personality variants as measured by the TPQ. No statistically significant differences in the three TPQ-subscale scores of the two groups were found.     

The association of thyroid function and heart valve sclerosis. Results from a population-based study

Objectives: Thyroid dysfunction is associated with detrimental cardiovascular effects. We analyzed whether thyroid status is associated with aortic valve sclerosis (AVS) and mitral annular calcification (MAC) as markers of generalized atherosclerosis. Design: Data of 2065 subjects (923 women and 1142 men) aged > or =45 years from the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP) were analyzed with respect to low, medium and high TSH levels. Logistic regression models were adjusted for major confounders of atherosclerosis. Main outcome: In women, the prevalence of AVS was the highest in those with low TSH (35.1% vs. 26.7% in medium TSH; p<0.05), while there was a higher prevalence of MAC in men with high TSH levels (9.2% vs. 5.2% in medium TSH; p<0.05). Compared with euthyroid men there was an increased adjusted odds ratio for MAC (OR 2.07; 95% CI 1.12-3.89, p<0.05), for the combination of AVS and MAC (OR 2.13; 95% CI 1.08-4.21, p<0.05) or for one of both (OR 1.47; 95% CI 1.02-2.13, p<0.05) among men with high TSH. No such association was found in women. Conclusions: There was an association between thyroid function and valvular sclerosis. Men with high TSH values had increased odds for AVS or MAC, and the combination of both. These findings may reflect an increased atherosclerotic state in affected subjects.