Endocrine Abstracts

A 39-year-old rugby league player was admitted with back pain to an Endocrinology/General Medicine ward. He was diagnosed with osteomyelitis of the spine and was treated with antibiotic. During his prolonged in-patient stay (6 weeks i.v. antibiotic treatment), the presence of purple striae on his lower abdomen was noted. Although he did not have other classical features of a Cushing’s syndrome including proximal myopathy, he had an increased BMI (38 kg/m2) and ...

A 64-year-old woman presented acutely with dry cough, difficulty in eating, diarrhoea and weight loss. Her past medical history included cervical carcinoma in situ treated with laser therapy. She was found to be hypercalcaemic, with a corrected calcium of 2.84 mmol/l. During admission, the calcium ranged between 2.8-3.87 mmol/l. The PTH ranged between 0.2-0.4 pmol/l (1.3-9.3 pmol/l). She had raised inflammatory markers and deranged liver function tests. On review, she...

Background: Opportunistic screening is more efficient than population screening for diabetes mellitus. The aim is to describe the prevalence of unrecognized diabetes mellitus (DM) among out-patients clinic attending in a major hospital in Basrah, Southern Iraq.Methods: A cross-sectional observational study. The study conducted for the period between January 2006 to end of July 2007. Patients, who attended the out-patient clinic in Al-Faiha hospital in Ba...

Collectively, typical and atypical lung carcinoids are referred to as the well differentiated lung neuroendocrine cancers (pulmonary NETS). Pulmonary NETS account for only 2% of lung malignancies, however, account for 25% of the total NET presentations. The incidence and prevalence of these cancers is growing. Most pulmonary NETs tend to be localised at presentation and, therefore, amenable to surgical resection. Following surgical resection, there is very little evidence base...

The incidence and prevalence of well-differentiated Bronchial NETs has been increasing globally in recent years. This may be due to better diagnostic/detection techniques and a greater awareness of these conditions. Despite this, these cancers are still uncommon and therefore most clinicians will not manage many of these patients. As a consequence, gaining experience in treating these cancers can become challenging. In the absence of a move to centralise their care, guidelines...

Well differentiated lung neuroendocrine tumours (WD lung NETS) are common NETs accounting for 25% of all the presenting neuroendocrine tumours. However, they are classified differently compared to GEP NETs, their mode of presentation; pattern of metastatic spread; associated syndromes, and how they respond to therapies are different from GEP NETs. They even present to a different group of specialists (respiratory physicians and thoracic surgeons) whereas the GEP NET patients t...

Background: Short synacthen(cosyntropin)test, has replaced the insulin stress test as the first-line test to assess adrenal insufficiency. The aim of this study, was to determine the utility of the 30 and 60 min cortisol measurement in the high dose (250 μg) short synacthen test.Methods: Cross sectional study was conducted by reviewing the database of patients underwent short synacthen test in Al-Faiha Diabetes Endocrine and Metabolism Center (FDEMC...

Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 1(MEN1) syndrome is commonly associated with the three ’P’s-pituitary, parathyroid and pancreatic lesions. However, increasingly, thoracic neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are being recognised with the syndrome. We present a case of MEN1 syndrome who primarily presented with a lung carcinoid tumour. A 31-year-old lady with without a significant past medical history presented with 2-month history of a persistent cough. ...

Introduction: Close long-term follow-up of patients with pulmonary carcinoid (PC) tumours is important for detection of recurrence, which can occur many years after primary surgery. Expert consensus guidelines for management of PC were published in 2015 (European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (ENETS)) and provide recommendations for follow-up type, frequency and duration. The LEAP Project aimed to describe current follow-up practices in the UK following publication of the guida...

A 30 year old female presented with recurrent episodes of collapse with hypotension. She had been taking tramadol 100 mg four times daily for pain due to endometriosis. A random cortisol of 110 nmol/L led to suspicion of opiate induced adrenal insufficiency and further investigations were undertaken. Results 09:00 hours ACTH 3.2 ng/L, cortisol 109 nmol/L, fT4 12.3 pmol/L, fT3 3.7 pmol/L, TSH 1.18 mU/L, FSH 6.8 IU/L, LH 12.1 IU/L, prolactin 438 mU/L a...