Endocrine Abstracts

Background: CSF rhinorrhoea is a rare but recognised complication of dopamine agonist therapy for macroprolactinoma. In the majority of cases, onset of CSF rhinorrhoea is within 4 months of commencing therapy.Case report: A 23-year-old man presented to the Emergency Department in April 2010 with acute weakness in his left arm and leg associated with intermittent headaches. Examination revealed mild right-sided ptosis and inadequate androgenisation. Visua...

We describe a case of chronic hypokalaemia secondary to Gitelman's syndrome. A 17 year female presented with a 1 year history of lethargy, muscle cramps and intermittent generalised abdominal pain. She took no regular medications and had no significant past medical history or family history. She was normotensive with a significant hypokalaemic, metabolic alkalosis. Sodium=135mmol/l, potassium=2.7mmol/l, creatinine=75micromol per litre, bicarbonate=36mmol/l. The hypokalaemia pe...

Introduction: Fine needle aspiration (FNA) is used, in conjunction with clinical assessment and imaging, to assess thyroid nodules for suspected malignancy. Cytological assessment of FNA samples involves both a text report and classification into a diagnostic category Thy1–Thy 5. The cytological category Thy 2 describes a FNA sample assessed to be non-neoplastic. Current BTA guidelines recommend two FNA samples, 3–6 months apart, are obtained to exclude neoplasia.</p...

Treatment of acromegaly aims primarily to reverse the increased mortality and morbidity associated with active disease to that of the non-acromegalic population. Recent evidence indicates that the best biochemical criteria for successful treatment should be a mean GH<2micrograms per litre (approximately 4milliunits per litre). Although a 'test dose' of octreotide (OTD) is recommended prior to use of depot somatostatin analogues (SSAs), there remains no consensus regarding t...

In Graves' disease (GD), it is recognised that isolation of the rare pathogenic autoantibodies that stimulate the thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) would assist in understanding disease pathogenesis. To date, monoclonal antibodies (mabs) to the TSHR with thyroid stimulating activity (TSAbs) have been isolated from experimental models of GD which are 100 fold weaker than the reported single human mab with strong TSAb activity. We describe two novel IgG mabs from a murine model of GD ...

There is a paucity of information regarding the genetic and somatic mutation events that lead to the production of pathogenic thyroid stimulating antibodies (TSAbs) in Graves’ disease. We have previously isolated two murine monoclonal antibodies (KSAb1 and KSAb2) with potent TSAb activity that demonstrate subtle differences in their interaction with the thyrotropin receptor (TSHR). Analyses of the variable region genes of the heavy and light chains of these TSAbs were per...