Clinical Neuroendocrinology

Section 1 Clinical aspects of hypothalamic function
Development
1. Genetic aspects of hypothalamic and pituitary gland development
2. Neuroendocrinology of pregnancy and parturition
Vasopressin, oxytocin, CRH
3. Disorders of water metabolism: diabetes insipidus and the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion
4. Oxytocin and vasopressin's role in emotional and social behaviors
5. Corticotrophin-releasing hormone and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in psychiatric disease
Metabolism
6. Genetic aspects of human obesity
7. Sleep characteristics and insulin sensitivity in humans
8. Hypothalamic neuropeptides in critical illness
9. Central regulation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis - focus on clinical aspects

Section 2 Disorders of the pituitary gland
Diagnostic approach
10. Evaluation of pituitary function
11. Imaging of pituitary pathology
Pituitary pathologies
12. Non-functioning pituitary tumors
13. Hyperprolactinemia and prolactinoma
14. Acromegaly
15. Cushing's disease
16. Craniopharyngioma
17. Rathke's cleft
18. Alternative causes of hypopituitarism: traumatic brain injury, cranial irradiation and infections
Therapeutic approach to pituitary tumors
19. Surgical approach to pituitary tumors
20. Medical approach to pituitary tumors
21. Radiation therapy in the management of pituitary adenomas

Section 3 Controversial issues and hot topics
22. Nelson Syndrome, definition and management
23. Familial pituitary tumours
24. Long-term effects of treatment of pituitary adenomas
25. Neuroendocrine mechanisms in athletes
26. Uncertainties in endocrine substitution therapy for central hypocortisolism
27. Uncertanties in endocrine substitution therapy for central endocrine insufficiencies: Hypothyroidism
28. Uncertanties in endocrine substitution therapy for central endocrine insufficiencies: growth hormone deficiency
29. Autoimmune hypophysitis: new developments

Eric Fliers is Professor of Endocrinology at the University of Amsterdam, serving as head of the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam since 2007. He received a PhD in Neuroscience on the functional neuroanatomy of the human hypothalamus, followed by his MD (with honors), both from the University of Amsterdam. He was subsequently trained as an internist-endocrinologist. Fliers was one of the founders of the Netherlands Brain Bank. His current research interests include the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis, and the neuro-endocrine response to illness. Eric Fliers is the current chair of the Dutch Endocrine Society.