Classifying hypertension

Posted on May 19, 2013 by MaryO

HYPERTENSION is classified into two categories according to its cause: essential and secondary.

The vast majority of patients have essential or primary hypertension, while only about 5-10% of patients have secondary hypertension, which are mainly caused by kidney and hormonal conditions like renal artery stenosis, hyperthyroidism, Cushing’s syndrome, and even pregnancy, among others.

The exact cause of essential hypertension is still unknown, although it is certainly the result of a combination of factors, including increasing age, having relatives with high blood pressure (ie family history), a sedentary lifestyle, a poor diet with too much salt, drinking too much alcohol, smoking and too much stress.

Says Malaysian Society of Hypertension president and Universiti Malaya Department of Primary Care Medicine senior consultant Prof Datin Dr Chia Yook Chin: “Each factor increases blood pressure by just a little, but when you add them all together little by little, it raises it by quite a lot.”

Despite not knowing the root cause of hypertension, it has been established that there is overstimulation of the sympathetic nerves in people with this condition.

This in turn increases the secretion of certain hormones involved in the regulation of sodium and fluids in the body, called renin, angiotensin, and aldosterone.

The amount of salt and water in our body affects our blood pressure – the more salt and water present, the higher our blood pressure.

These two elements are regulated by our kidneys through the three hormones mentioned above, which are produced by the adrenal glands located on top of the kidneys.

The overstimulation of the sympathetic nerves also results in increased vascular tone, which causes our arteries to become constricted, thus, also raising blood pressure.

From The Star

Filed under: adrenal, Cushing's, General Health | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Deadline is Friday for Helping Grow the Rare Disease Congressional Caucus

Posted on May 16, 2013 by MaryO

caucus1

Friday, May 17 at 8PM eastern is the deadline for this.

We want to have Caucus Members from all 50 States.

We have 28 to go: AL, AK, AZ, CO, CT, DE, HI, ID, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MS, MO, MT, NV, NH, NM, ND, OK, RI, SC, SD, UT, VT, WI, & WY If you live in one of these states or know someone who does – Please take ACTION today!

 

http://bit.ly/RareAlert

Original post:

Help us strengthen the rare disease community’s voice on Capitol Hill!  Please take 3 minutes to ask your Member of Congress to join the Rare Disease Caucus at http://bit.ly/RareAlert.
It’s easy – the Action Center has a draft letter that will automatically be sent to your Member of Congress – just put in your name and address & click send.  We also encourage you to personalize the letter to share information about your specific disease.  If your Congress Member is already on the Caucus, the letter will automatically populate as a thank you letter instead – these are just as important to send!
It can take up to 10 letters from constituents for a Member to respond so please share this Action Alert with your friends, family & colleagues.  Join our Facebook event & invite your friends:   http://on.fb.me/17Mlpjg
The Rare Disease Congressional Caucus will help bring public and Congressional awareness to the unique needs of the rare disease community – patients, physicians, scientists, and industry, and create opportunities to address roadblocks in access to and development of crucial treatments.  The Caucus will give a permanent voice to the rare disease community on Capitol Hill.  Working together, we can find solutions that turn hope into treatments.
Related articles

Filed under: adrenal, pituitary, Rare Diseases | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Diagnostic performance of salivary cortisol in the diagnosis of Cushing’s syndrome, adrenal incidentaloma and adrenal insufficiency

Posted on May 1, 2013 by MaryO

Source

F Ceccato, Department of Medicine – DIMED, University of Padova, Endocrinology Unit, Padova, Italy.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

Salivary cortisol has been recently suggested for studies on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis: lack of circadian rhythm is a marker of Cushing’s syndrome (CS), and some authors report that low salivary cortisol levels may be a marker of adrenal insufficiency. The aim of our study was to define the role of salivary cortisol in specific diagnostic setting of HPA axis disease.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS:

We analyzed morning salivary cortisol (MSC) and late night salivary cortisol (LNSC) in 406 subjects: 52 Cushing’s disease (CD), 13 ectopic-CS, 17 adrenal-CS, 27 CD in remission (mean follow-up of 66 ± 39 months), 45 adrenal incidentalomas, 73 patients assessed of CS and then ruled out for endogenous hypercortisolism, 75 patients with adrenal insufficiency and 104 healthy subjects.

RESULTS:

A LNSC value above 5.24 ng/mL differentiated CS from controls with high sensitivity (96.3%) and specificity (97.1%), we found higher LNSC in ectopic-CS than in CD. We found no difference in MSC and LNSC levels between CD in remission and healthy subjects. Both MSC and LNSC were higher in adrenal incidentaloma than in healthy controls. MSC below 2.65 ng/mL distinguished patients with adrenal insufficiency from controls with high sensitivity (97.1%) and specificity (93.3%).

CONCLUSIONS:

salivary cortisol is a useful tool to assess endogenous cortisol excess or adrenal insufficiency and to evaluate stable CD in remission.

PMID:

 

23610124

 

[PubMed – as supplied by publisher]
From PubMed
Related articles

Filed under: adrenal, Cushing's, pituitary | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Cushing’s Awareness Blogging Challenge 2013

Posted on March 14, 2013 by MaryO

Do you blog? Want to get started?

Since April 8 is Cushing’s Awareness Day, several people got their heads together to create the Second Annual Cushing’s Awareness Blogging Challenge.

All you have to do is blog about something Cushing’s related for the 30 days of April.

Robin designed this year’s version of our “official logo” to put on your blogs.

Cushing's Awareness Challenge 2013

challenge-2013nb

If your blog wants you to upload an image from your desktop, right-click on the image above and choose “save-as”. Remember where you saved it to!

To link to the image with the yellow border, use this URL: http://www.cushings-help.com/images/challenge-2013b.jpg

To link to the image without a border, use this URL: http://www.cushings-help.com/images/challenge-2013nb.jpg

In all cases, the URL for the site is http://www.cushings-help.com

Please let me know the URL to your blog in the comments area of this post or and I will list it on CushieBloggers ( http://cushie-blogger.blogspot.com/ ) The more people who participate, the more the word will get out about Cushing’s.

Suggested topics – or add your own!
In what ways have Cushing’s made you a better person?
What have you learned about the medical community since you have become sick?
If you had one chance to speak to an endocrinologist association meeting, what would you tell them about Cushing’s patients?
What would you tell the friends and family of another Cushing’s patient in order to garner more emotional support for your friend?Challenges with Cushing’s? How have you overcome challenges? Stuff like that.
I have Cushing’s Disease….(personal synopsis)
How I found out I have Cushing’s
What is Cushing’s Disease/Syndrome? (Personal variation, i.e. adrenal or pituitary or ectopic, etc.)
My challenges with Cushing’s
Overcoming challenges with Cushing’s (could include any challenges)
If I could speak to an endocrinologist organization, I would tell them….
What would I tell others trying to be diagnosed? What would I tell families of those who are sick with Cushing’s?
Treatments I’ve gone through to try to be cured/treatments I may have to go through to be cured.
What will happen if I’m not cured?
I write about my health because…
10 Things I Couldn’t Live Without.
My Dream Day.
What I learned the hard way
Miracle Cure. (Write a news-style article on a miracle cure. What’s the cure? How do you get the cure? Be sure to include a disclaimer)
Health Madlib Poem. Go to http://languageisavirus.com/cgi-bin/madlibs.pl and fill in the parts of speech and the site will generate a poem for you.
The Things We Forget. Visit http://thingsweforget.blogspot.com/ and make your own version of a short memo reminder. Where would you post it?
Give yourself, your condition, or your health focus a mascot. Is it a real person? Fictional? Mythical being? Describe them. Bonus points if you provide a visual!
5 Challenges & 5 Small Victories.
The First Time I…
Make a word cloud or tree with a list of words that come to mind when you think about your blog, health, or interests. Use a thesaurus to make it branch more.
How much money have you spent on Cushing’s, or, How did Cushing’s impact your life financially?
Why do you think Cushing’s may not be as rare as doctors believe?
What is your theory about what causes Cushing’s?
How has Cushing’s altered the trajectory of your life? What would you have done? Who would you have been?
What three things has Cushing’s stolen from you? What do you miss the most? What can you do in your Cushing’s life to still achieve any of those goals? What new goals did Cushing’s bring to you?
How do you cope?
What do you do to improve your quality of life as you fight Cushing’s?
Your thoughts…?

Filed under: adrenal, Cushing's, pituitary, Rare Diseases | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Cushing’s Syndrome, Prostate Cancer and Adrenocortical Carcinoma

Posted on March 11, 2013 by MaryO

Orphagen has identified and characterized small molecule antagonists to steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1). SF-1 binds to and regulates DNA promoter elements in the major transporters and enzymes required for adrenal steroid synthesis. It is also required for development of the adrenal gland. SF-1 antagonists inhibit cortisol secretion in adrenal cells and have potential application in two orphan indications, Cushing’s syndrome and adrenocortical carcinoma. In addition, SF-1 appears to have an important role in the progression of advanced prostate cancer.

 

cushings-adrenocortical-crop

 

Cushing’s syndrome:
An estimated 20,000 people in the US have Cushing’s, with more than 3,000 new cases diagnosed each year. The incidence is similar in Europe. Cushing’s syndrome disproportionately affects females, who make up about 75% of the diagnosed cases. Symptoms of Cushing’s syndrome can include obesity, diabetes, psychiatric disorders, osteoporosis and immune suppression. Cushing’s syndrome is caused by elevated secretion of cortisol from the adrenal gland, in association with pituitary, adrenal or other cancers.

Orphagen has identified small molecule antagonists to SF-1 that have the potential to suppress cortisol levels in all Cushing’s patients without serious side effects.

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC):
ACC is a rare malignancy with an extremely poor prognosis (5-year overall survival: 37-47%). Complete surgical resection offers hope for long-term survival but surgery is not an option in up to two-thirds of patients because metastasis has usually occurred by the time of diagnosis.

SF-1 is recognized as a potential mechanism-based therapeutic target for control of ACC and an SF-1 antagonist could be used in the treatment of ACC.

Pediatric ACC:
Pediatric ACC is a very rare but aggressive cancer with a long-term survival rate of about 50%. Approximately 60% of children with adrenocortical tumors are diagnosed before the age of four. The SF-1 gene is amplified and SF-1 protein is overexpressed in the vast majority of childhood adrenocortical tumors strongly implicating SF-1 in pediatric adrenocortical tumorigenesis.

Castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC):
CRPC is the most common cancer in males. Surgery is not an option if the cancer has spread beyond the prostate gland, at which point patients typically receive hormonal therapy, essentially chemical castration. This course of therapy usually fails within two years, resulting in castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Most patients eventually succumb to CRPC, which is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men.
SF-1 antagonists may: (1) block the adrenal androgens that circumvent chemical castration, and are a primary cause of CRPC; and (2) inhibit synthesis of androgens within the prostate tumor itself, where SF-1 may control induction of enzymes for de novo androgen synthesis in treatment-resistant cancers.

From http://www.orphagen.com/research_cushings.html

Filed under: adrenal, Cushing's, Rare Diseases | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »