Endocrine Abstracts

Recently, several groups have described a subset of obese women, who despite having excessive total body fat, are insulin sensitive (ISO for Insulin Sensitive Obese), normotensive and present a favorable lipid profile. Adiponectin, ghrelin and leptin play important roles in the regulation of energy metabolism and food intake. Moreover, all three hormones have been reported to be closely linked to insulin resistance and regulated by insulin. Therefore, we propose to investigate...

Introduction: Guidelines suggest definition for cure in acromegaly is to achieve a nadir growth hormone (GH) <2 mU/l during a growth hormone suppression test and a normal IGF-1 level (Gustina 2000). Following an earlier retrospective audit (Brown et al. 2002), showing limited achieved cure success, we re-audited our patients.Methods: All patients with acromegaly were invited to undergo growth hormone suppression test and IGF-1measurement over ...

Background: Thyrotoxicosis is a common disorder with a prevalence of 3% in females and 0.3% in males in iodine replete areas. The prevalence may be higher in areas of iodine deficiency. It is known to induce many cardiovascular effects. The most important complication of thyrotoxicosis is atrial fibrillation. We aimed to assess thyroid function in patients with atrial fibrillation and determine the frequency of thyrotoxicosis in this group.Methods: We st...

Background: It is widely believed that increased circulatory concentrations of long-chain saturated fatty acids (LC-SFA) significantly contribute to the death and dysfunction of pancreatic β-cells in the development of type 2 diabetes (T2D). The mechanism by which LC-SFA cross the β-cell plasma membrane has not been fully established. This work aims to characterise the mechanism underpinning this uptake. Ultimately, regulation of LC-SFA entry may maintain β-cell...

We report the use of Gamma knife radiosurgery (GK) to 15 somatotroph adenomas. Eight patients had refractory acromegaly despite maximal conventional treatments: all had undergone conventional radiotherapy (CRT), mean interval between CRT and GK 15.6 years. Six had undergone surgery, two on more than one occasion. Five were receiving somatostatin analog therapy, one was receiving dopamine agonist therapy, one was on pegvisomant alone. All had radiologically defined disease, wel...

Introduction: Diagnosis of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) is often a challenge and involves biochemical characterisation and anatomic localisation of the tumour. Wherever feasible, curative surgical excision is the treatment of choice.Materials and Methods: Twenty four consecutive patients with pancreatic NETs were referred for consideration of surgery over a six-year period (1999–2005). Following use of multi imaging modalities to localis...

Whether TTA affects GO remains to be established. Here we studied the effects of TTA in 90 patients with mild-moderate GO randomized into 3 groups of thyroid treatment: MMI (methimazole), TX [near-total thyroidectomy (NTTX)], TTA (NTTX plus 131-I). Patients were treated with ivGC and evaluated at 3 and 9 mo. GO was considered improved or worsened when at least 2 of the following criteria changed, either positively or negatively: i) proptosis and/or eyelid width by at least 2 m...

The aim of the study was to evaluate the safety, feasibility and efficacy of HIFU (High Insensity Focused Ultrasound) for the destruction of thyroid nodules in patients who are indicated for thyroid surgery.Material and methods: 13 patients were treated by a HIFU device 2 weeks before thyroidectomy for euthyroid multinodular goiter. Ultrasound (US) examination was performed before and at 3, 8 and 15 days post treatment. Free T3, T4, TSH, thyroglobulin we...

Single gene defects causing severe insulin resistance have been elucidated either by directed screening of candidate genes (INSR, AKT2, PPARG) or by detailed linkage mapping in large pedigrees (BSCL2, AGPAT2, LMNA), and study of patients harbouring these known defects continues to yield important insights into insulin’s action in health and disease. However a large proportion of the genetic defects leading to severe insulin resistance in slim subjects remains undiscovered...

Surgical treatment is the first therapeutic option in patients affected with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). However, cure-rates are often low due to the high frequency of loco-regional metastases and recurrences. Therefore, post-operative hyper-calcitoninemia is a common feature in CMT. Despite these findings, traditional imaging techniques are often unable to localize tumour foci. In the last years the availability of new morpho-functional techniques might offer new chanc...