Endocrine Abstracts

Although insulinoma commonly presents as fasting hypoglycaemia it can rarely present as post prandial hypoglycaemia and even less rarely in association with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). We describe a case of insulinoma presenting as post-prandial hypoglycaemia and T2DM.A 60 year old man presented with a 6 year history of episodes of double vision and loss of concentration occurring post-prandially. His symptoms were associated with capillary blood gl...

There are discrepancies between different studies with regards to the association of subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH), dyslipidaemia and cardiovascular (CV) disease. Therefore, we have conducted a systematic search and meta-analysis of population-based studies of CV disease in which thyroid status was examined and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of treatment.The PubMed and Embase databases were searched for relevant studies published between 1976 and...

Introduction: The association between fatigue, functional status and subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) remains unclear. The available data is not consistent, and this is likely to be due to selection bias in studies recruiting patients from clinic rather than unselected community populations. Only population surveys looking at prevalence of fatigue and functional status in SCH are likely to provide the answer.Objective and Methodology: We compared the pre...

Background: There is evidence to suggest an association between hypothyroidism (overt and subclinical) and cardiovascular disease. It is unclear whether the set-point of the thyroid axis, within the normal range, may be related to vascular risk.Methods: We have reanalysed the data from the original Whickham study to assess BP in the entire cohort and its relationship to serum TSH within the reference range (0.3–6.0 mIU/L). Multivariate stepwise line...

Background: It is well established that subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is associated with mild ventricular dysfunction and early cardiovascular disease (CVD), but it is unknown if there is an underlying defect in cardiac bio-energetic function.Objective: To quantify the cardiac phosphocreatine/ATP (PCr/ATP) ratio in SCH, compare with healthy controls (HC) and to measure the effect of 6 months of thyroxine treatment.Method: Cardia...

Background: Overt and subclinical hypothyroidisms are associated with altered cerebral blood flow (CBF) which may be reversed with levothyroxine treatment (T4T). Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is associated with fatigue but it is unclear whether fatigue is related to abnormal CBF and whether T4T has a beneficial impact. We therefore studied fatigued SCH patients before and after T4T and euthyroid non-fatigued healthy controls (HC).Methods: CBF was meas...

Background: Adrenal incidental masses (incidentalomas) are present in up to 10% of patients. The majority of these adrenal masses are clinically inapparent, but may be functionally active in a significant proportion; thus assessment by endocrinologists is essential.We assessed the functionality of adrenal incidentalomas referred to the endocrinology team at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead.Methods: Patients with adrenal in...

Introduction: Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH, higher serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) with normal thyroid hormone) is associated with an increased risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD). Subclinical thyrotoxicosis (SCT, lower serum TSH with normal thyroid hormone) is also associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation, cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.Aim and methods: To examine the relationship between IHD and thyroid disorders in...

Introduction: Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is recognised as an increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Low number of circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPC), defined as mononuclear cells, expressing endothelial (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor, VEGFR-2) and stem cell (CD-34, CD-133) markers is associated with CVD. Our aim was to identify whether reduced EPC number might contribute to increased CV risk in subclinical and overt hypothyroidism (Hy)...

Due to the rarity of autoimmune Addison’s disease (AAD), it has proved difficult to gather large case cohorts for genetic studies. Linkage analysis offers a powerful means of identifying genetic susceptibility loci but has never been applied to AAD because of the scarcity of families containing ≥2 affected individuals. We collected DNA from 23 such families to perform the first linkage study in AAD.We genotyped 117 samples (50 cases, 67 contro...