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Machine learning (ML) applications have received extensive attention in endocrinology research during the last decade. This review summarizes the basic concepts of ML and certain research topics in endocrinology and metabolism where ML principles have been actively deployed. Relevant studies are discussed to provide an overview of the methodology, main findings, and limitations of ML, with the goal of stimulating insights into future research directions. Clear, testable study hypotheses stem from unmet clinical needs, and the management of data quality (beyond a focus on quantity alone), open collaboration between clinical experts and ML engineers, the development of interpretable high-performance ML models beyond the black-box nature of some algorithms, and a creative environment are the core prerequisites for the foreseeable changes expected to be brought about by ML and artificial intelligence in the field of endocrinology and metabolism, with actual improvements in clinical practice beyond hype. Of note, endocrinologists will continue to play a central role in these developments as domain experts who can properly generate, refine, analyze, and interpret data with a combination of clinical expertise and scientific rigor.
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Increasing evidence supports interplay between aldosterone and parathyroid hormone (PTH), which may aggravate cardiovascular complications in various heart diseases. Negative structural cardiovascular remodeling by primary aldosteronism (PA) is also suspected to be associated with changes in calcium levels. However, to date, few clinical studies have examined how changes in calcium and PTH levels influence cardiovascular outcomes in PA patients. Therefore, we investigated the impact of altered calcium homeostasis caused by excessive aldosterone on cardiovascular parameters in patients with PA.
Forty-two patients (mean age 48.8±10.9 years; 1:1, male:female) whose plasma aldosterone concentration/plasma renin activity ratio was more than 30 were selected among those who had visited Severance Hospital from 2010 to 2014. All patients underwent adrenal venous sampling with complete access to both adrenal veins.
The prevalence of unilateral adrenal adenoma (54.8%) was similar to that of bilateral adrenal hyperplasia. Mean serum corrected calcium level was 8.9±0.3 mg/dL (range, 8.3 to 9.9). The corrected calcium level had a negative linear correlation with left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD, ρ=−0.424,
Aldosterone-mediated hypercalciuria and subsequent hypocalcemia may be partly involved in the development of cardiac remodeling as well as a prolonged QTc interval, in subjects with PA, thereby triggering deleterious effects on target organs additively.
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Adrenal venous sampling (AVS) is a gold standard for subtype classification of primary aldosteronism (PA). However, this procedure has a high failure rate because of the anatomical difficulties in accessing the right adrenal vein. We investigated whether C-arm computed tomography-assisted AVS (C-AVS) could improve the success rate of adrenal sampling.
A total of 156 patients, diagnosed with PA who underwent AVS from May 2004 through April 2017, were included. Based on the medical records, we retrospectively compared the overall, left, and right catheterization success rates of adrenal veins during the periods without C-AVS (2004 to 2010,
With C-AVS, the rates of adequate bilateral AVS increased from 40.6% to 88.7% (
C-AVS improved the overall success rate of AVS, possibly as a result of better catheterization of right adrenal vein.
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Hypoparathyroid patients often have a higher bone mineral density (BMD) than the general population. However, an increase in BMD does not necessarily correlate with a solid bone microstructure. This study aimed to evaluate the bone microstructure of hypoparathyroid patients by using hip structure analysis (HSA).
Ninety-five hypoparathyroid patients >20 years old were enrolled and 31 of them had eligible data for analyzing bone geometry parameters using HSA. And among the control data, we extracted sex-, age-, and body mass index-matched three control subjects to each patient. The BMD data were reviewed retrospectively and the bone geometry parameters of the patients were analyzed by HSA.
The mean Z-scores of hypoparathyroid patients at the lumbar spine, femoral neck, and total hip were above zero (0.63±1.17, 0.48±1.13, and 0.62±1.10, respectively). The differences in bone geometric parameters were site specific. At the femoral neck and intertrochanter, the cross-sectional area (CSA) and cortical thickness (C.th) were higher, whereas the buckling ratio (BR) was lower than in controls. However, those trends were opposite at the femoral shaft; that is, the CSA and C.th were low and the BR was high.
Our study shows the site-specific effects of hypoparathyroidism on the bone. Differences in bone components, marrow composition, or modeling based bone formation may explain these findings. However, further studies are warranted to investigate the mechanism, and its relation to fracture risk.
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Oxidative stress in primary aldosteronism (PA) is thought to worsen aldosterone-induced damage by activating proinflammatory processes. Therefore, we investigated whether inflammatory markers associated with oxidative stress is increased with negative impacts on heart function as evaluated by echocardiography in patients with PA.
Thirty-two subjects (mean age, 50.3±11.0 years; 14 males, 18 females) whose aldosterone-renin ratio was more than 30 among patients who visited Severance Hospital since 2010 were enrolled. Interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, IL-8, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), and matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2), and MMP-9 were measured. All patients underwent adrenal venous sampling with complete access to both adrenal veins.
Only MMP-2 level was significantly higher in the aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) group than in the bilateral adrenal hyperplasia (BAH). Patients with APA had significantly higher left ventricular (LV) mass and A velocity, compared to those with BAH. IL-1β was positively correlated with left atrial volume index. Both TNF-α and MMP-2 also had positive linear correlation with A velocity. Furthermore, MMP-9 showed a positive correlation with LV mass, whereas it was negatively correlated with LV end-systolic diameter.
These results suggest the possibility that some of inflammatory markers related to oxidative stress may be involved in developing diastolic dysfunction accompanied by LV hypertrophy in PA. Further investigations are needed to clarify the role of oxidative stress in the course of cardiac remodeling.
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γ-Glutamyl transferase (GGT) is a well-known marker of chronic alcohol consumption or hepatobiliary diseases. A number of studies have demonstrated that serum levels of GGT are independently associated with cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. The purpose of this study was to test if serum GGT levels are associated with bone mineral density (BMD) in Korean adults.
A total of 462 subjects (289 men and 173 women), who visited Severance Hospital for medical checkup, were included in this study. BMD was measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Cross-sectional association between serum GGT and BMD was evaluated.
As serum GGT levels increased from the lowest tertile (tertile 1) to the highest tertile (tertile 3), BMD decreased after adjusting for confounders such as age, body mass index, amount of alcohol consumed, smoking, regular exercise, postmenopausal state (in women), hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hypercholesterolemia. A multiple linear regression analysis showed a negative association between log-transformed serum GGT levels and BMD. In a multiple logistic regression analysis, tertile 3 of serum GGT level was associated with an increased risk for low bone mass compared to tertile 1 (odds ratio, 2.271; 95% confidence interval, 1.340 to 3.850;
Serum GGT level was inversely associated with BMD in Korean adults. Further study is necessary to fully elucidate the mechanism of the inverse relationship.
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Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) with 17α-hydroxylase/17,20-lyase deficiency is usually characterized by hypertension and primary amenorrhea, sexual infantilism in women, and pseudohermaphroditism in men. hypertension, and sexual infantilism in women and pseudohermaphroditism in men. In rare cases, a huge adrenal gland tumor can present as a clinical manifestation in untreated CAH. Adrenal cortical adenoma is an even more rare phenotype in CAH with 17α-hydroxylase/17,20-lyase deficiency. A 36-year-old female presented with hypertension and abdominal pain caused by a huge adrenal mass. Due to mass size and symptoms, left adrenalectomy was performed. After adrenalectomy, blood pressure remained high. Based on hormonal and genetic evaluation, the patient was diagnosed as CAH with 17α-hydroxylase/17,20-lyase deficiency. The possibility of a tumorous change in the adrenal gland due to untreated CAH should be considered. It is important that untreated CAH not be misdiagnosed as primary adrenal tumor as these conditions require different treatments. Adequate suppression of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in CAH is also important to treat and to prevent the tumorous changes in the adrenal gland. Herein, we report a case of untreated CAH with 17α-hydroxylase/17,20-lyase deficiency presenting with large adrenal cortical adenoma and discuss the progression of adrenal gland hyperplasia due to inappropriate suppression of ACTH secretion.
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Sclerostin is a secreted Wnt inhibitor produced almost exclusively by osteocytes, which inhibits bone formation. Aromatase inhibitors (AIs), which reduce the conversion of steroids to estrogen, are used to treat endocrine-responsive breast cancer. As AIs lower estrogen levels, they increase bone turnover and lower bone mass. We analyzed changes in serum sclerostin levels in Korean women with breast cancer who were treated with an AI.
We included postmenopausal women with endocrine-responsive breast cancer (
Postmenopausal women with breast cancer had significantly higher sclerostin levels compared to those in premenopausal women (27.8±13.6 pmol/L vs. 23.1±4.8 pmol/L,
Serum sclerostin levels increased with absolute deficiency of residual estrogens in postmenopausal women with endocrine-responsive breast cancer who underwent AI therapy with concurrent bone loss.
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The present study evaluated the efficacy of a combination of ibandronate and cholecalciferol on the restoration of the levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) and various bone markers in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.
This was a randomized, double-blind, active-controlled, prospective 16-week clinical trial conducted in 20 different hospitals. A total of 201 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis were assigned randomly to one of two groups: the IBN group, which received a once-monthly pill containing 150 mg ibandronate (
After 16 weeks of treatment, the mean serum levels of 25(OH)D significantly increased from 21.0 to 25.3 ng/mL in the IBN+ group but significantly decreased from 20.6 to 17.4 ng/mL in the IBN group. Additionally, both groups exhibited significant increases in mean serum levels of PTH but significant decreases in serum levels of bone-specific alkaline phosphatase and C-telopeptide of type 1 collagen (CTX) at 16 weeks; no significant differences were observed between the groups. However, in subjects with a vitamin D deficiency, IBN+ treatment resulted in a significant decrease in serum CTX levels compared with IBN treatment.
The present findings demonstrate that a once-monthly pill containing ibandronate and cholecalciferol may be useful for the amelioration of vitamin D deficiency in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis. Moreover, this treatment combination effectively decreased serum levels of resorption markers, especially in subjects with a vitamin D deficiency, over the 16-week treatment period.
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Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) is a familial syndrome characterized by the parathyroid, pancreas and pituitary tumors. Parathyroid tumors are the most common clinical manifestations, occurring in more than 90% of MEN1 patients. Heterozygous germline mutations of the
We analyzed medical records from 14 unrelated MEN1 patients who had newly confirmed
Total 28 germline mutations of
We also have found a lack of genotype/phenotype correlation in Korean MEN1 patients. There were not a few unusual initial manifestations in MEN1 patients, thus, genetic testing for the
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