Endocrine Abstracts

Diabetic ketoacidosis [DKA] is known to be precipitated by number of clinical situations which lead to increased production of counter regulatory hormones Substance abuse has recently been highlighted as a risk factor in DKA. Cocaine has not received sufficient emphasis. We report a case of multiple admissions for DKA associated with cocaine use.A 23 year old male student was brought to emergency room for altered sensorium of ten hours duration. He was a...

A 34-year-old woman with seasonal allergic rhinitis was poorly controlled with fexofenadine. She began to use beclomethasone nasal inhaler, 42 ug of drug per nasal pump unit, 2 sprays in each nostril twice daily. There was no history of substance use or drug intake. Two months later she complained of easy fatiguability, and pain in her thighs and arms, on walking distances and climbing stairs which were easily tolerated earlier. There was no history of proximal muscle weakness...

A 21-year old woman was referred to endocrinology outpatient with sparse hair on scalp, eyebrows, eyelids, and body since birth, short stature, bone pains, proximal muscle weakness, and recurrent fractures of long bones. She was a product of second-degree consanguineous marriage and was eldest of two siblings. Her younger brother aged 16-years had similar complaints.Clinically she had alopecia universalis, short stature, hypotonia, proximal muscle weakne...

Sleep disordered breathing (SDB), including obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), is associated with excessive daytime somnolence, and impacts significantly on quality of life in affected individuals. It also predisposes to premature cardiovascular (hypertension, congestive cardiac failure, myocardial infarction, sudden death, and stroke) and metabolic (diabetes mellitus and dyslipidaemia) dysfunction.SDB is a well-recognised complication of acromegaly. In mos...

Background: Adrenal incidentalomas (AI) are identified in 4–7% of patients >40 years undergoing abdominal CT/MRI. Evidence of subclinical autonomous glucocorticoid hypersecretion (SAGH) is found in 5–10% of cases depending on the diagnostic criteria/thresholds adopted.Aim: To examine the utility of basal DHEAS measurement in the detection of SAGH in a cohort of patients with AI.Methods: Ninety-six consecutive subjects...

Subclinical hypercortisolism (SH) occurs in 5–30% of incidentally-detected adrenal adenomas (AIs). Common screening tests for ACTH-independent hypercortisolism have significant false positive rates, mandating further investigations that are both time and resource intensive. We investigated whether a low basal DHEAS level is a sensitive and specific screening test for the detection/exclusion of SH in patients with newly-diagnosed AI. We recruited 185 consecutive patients w...

Background: Pituitary carcinoma occurs in ~0.2% of resected pituitary tumours, and carries a poor prognosis (mean survival <4 years), with standard chemotherapeutic regimens showing limited efficacy. However, recent evidence suggests that temozolomide, an orally active alkylating agent used principally in the management of glioblastoma, may also be effective in controlling aggressive/invasive pituitary adenomas/carcinomas. Low levels of expression of the DNA-repair enzyme ...