Important news and information for people dealing with pituitary disorders

From the editor’s desk:  

Hypothyroidism and musculoskeletal pain:  Joint and bone pain is one of those subjects we cover extensively at PWN.  This article from Health advocate Dana Trentini (Hypothyroid Mom) does an excellent job discussing how musculoskeletal pain manifests itself in hypothyroidism.  We also recommend you review the Mayo’s clinic summary on hypothyroidism and pain as well as this NIH review “Bone and joint manifestations of hypothyroidism, to get an accurate picture of the current medical knowledge.

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Gadolinium and pituitary MRI’s:  Lot’s of discussion and noise about gadolinium’s safety concerns.  This is the contrast agent used in pituitary MRI’s, and people are concerned about possible brain retention in patients with normal renal function and in ones with no intracranial abnormalities.  Dr. Maria Fleseriu from the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon, does a great job in explaining the issues as well as an analysis of some research done by the Pituitary Society regarding follow-up and surveillance of patients after pituitary surgery. Read the complete article here…

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Technology and the pituitary: Technology continues to make strides in the pituitary world.  This article discusses a fascinating and exciting pilot study that uses a wrist-mounted device to track hormonal, electrolyte, and fluid disturbances in transsphenoidal post-surgery patients.  The device transmits data via Bluetooth to a center that monitors the patients.  Patients in the study reported high satisfaction with the program. Read more here…   Use of a wrist-mounted device for continuous outpatient physiologic monitoring after transsphenoidal surgery: a pilot study

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Cushing’s and bone disease: And more information on potential bone problems for patients with Cushing’s.  This article by Alice Melao focuses on the higher risk of fractures from a study of Bone Health in patients with Cushing’s.   The study confirmed that Cushing’s patients are at very high risks of bone disease and bone complications.  Read the complete article Cushing’s Syndrome Patients at High Risk of Bone Problems Regardless of Vitamin D Levels, Study Shows,  published this month in Cushing’s Disease News 

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More on sleep apnea:  This article caught my eyes because we have dedicated a fair amount of ink, so to speak, to the subject of sleep apnea.  Of particular note was the opening line by the article’s author Dr. Aaron B Holley.  In his commentary, Dr. Holley writes: “Believe it or not, the sleep medicine field still can’t figure out how to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea“.  It looks like it very much depends on how you define apneas and hypopneas, which produce remarkably different scores. It seems this is particularly critical to the definition of hypopneas, which are yet to be proven to be associated with adverse outcomes.  Well, as they say, the devil is in the details, and this appears to be no different according to the article:  “Diagnosing Obstructive Sleep Apnea: The Glass is Half Empty, Despite What You’ve Been Told”.  Definitely worth reading!.  Sleep apnea is very prevalent in people with acromegaly and affects a great number of people with pituitary disorders, so we urge you to learn more about it and contact your physician to get more information.  You can read more about it and listen to the PWN podcast here.

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Sadly, more on opioids: And we continue to sadly report on the devastating opioid epidemic in the US.  This time with a report by Judy George, which contributed to this article on MedPage Today.  You can read the article “New Opioid Epidemic ‘Hot Spots’ Emerge in the U.S. here…

 

Say tuned for more briefings

 

 

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