Insulin sensitivity and secretion and adipokine profile in patients with Cushing's disease treated with pasireotide

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Somatostatin and Pasireotide.

To evaluate the effect of pasireotide on β-cell and adipose function in patients with Cushing's disease (CD).

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 12 patients taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Clinical and hormonal parameters, insulin secretion evaluated by HOMA-β and by the area under the curve (AUC2h) of C-peptide during a mixed meal tolerance test and insulin sensitivity, evaluated by the euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp, were evaluated in 12 patients with active CD, before and after 6 and 12 months of pasireotide.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Somatostatin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

A time span of 12 months appears in the methods.

In addition, a panel of adipokines including leptin (Ob), leptin/leptin receptor ratio (Ob/Ob-R ratio), adiponectin, resistin, visfatin, adipocyte fatty acid binding protein (AFABP) and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) was evaluated at baseline and after 12 months of pasireotide.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Adipokines, Blood Glucose, Cohort Studies, Hormones, Insulin, Insulin Resistance and Pituitary ACTH Hypersecretion.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Cushing’s disease, Diabetes mellitus, Insulin sensitivity and Pasireotide.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Somatostatin and Pasireotide in 12 patients over 12 months.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 3 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2018 (Journal of endocrinological investigation), a journal based in Italy.

More context: the Somatostatin compound page and the Pasireotide compound page, all human trials.