Endocrine Abstracts

BackgroundThere is a need to develop a highly sensitive and reliable immunoassay method for the determination of testosterone concentrations both in children and adults. Testosterone in blood is largely bound to proteins (sex hormone binding globulin and albumin). The unbound fraction of testosterone is considered to be the biologically active hormone which correlates more closely with the physiologically effective level of this hormone. It is postulated...

A 33 year old male was referred with poorly controlled hypertension. He gave no other past medical or family history. Despite therapy with multiple agents blood pressure was poorly controlled at 200/130 mm/Hg. Initial investigations which included renal ultrasound, magnetic resonance angiography and urine catecholamine excretion were all negative. Plasma renin concentration was suppressed (1 mu/ml/L, normal range 5 to 50) and plasma aldosterone was raised at 650 pmol/L (normal...

Introduction: Children with chronic renal failure may grow poorly and have altered bone metabolism and body composition. Post-renal transplant (Tx), improvement in these parameters may be hindered due to glucocorticoid exposure.Aims & methods: To study changes in these parameters after Tx, anthropometry, bone mineral content (BMC) at total body (TB) and lumber spine (LS), lean mass (LM) and fat mass (FM) were analysed by DXA in 15 children (median ag...

The eye is an organ vulnerable to a variety of external and internal stimuli that can abolish its vital function to allow accurate vision of images for survival. Inflammation is the key mediator of immune protection but its consequence leads to the disruption of the visual axis integrity. Due to this precise reason, through adaptation and evolution, the eye has developed mechanisms of immune tolerance and privilege. Glucocorticoids have potent immunosuppressive and anti-inflam...

Introduction: The hCG stimulation test is a useful indicator of functional testicular tissue and may also have a place in treating undescended testes (UDT). However, its utility is limited by the inconsistency in the regimens used. We have looked at the clinical and biochemical response in a group of children with UDT who had a prolonged hCG stimulation as part of their clinical management.Methods: The retrospective review in 17 cases with a median EMS (...

Corticosteroids can be synthesised in tissues other than the adrenal cortex but the contribution of this extra-adrenal corticosteroidogenesis to circulating levels in man is not known. We studied this in a group 10 subjects taking chronic glucocorticoid replacement following bilateral adrenalectomy. In phase 1, they were maintained on cortisol alone (30 mg/day). In phase 2, cortisol was replaced by dexamethasone (2 mg/day) and in phase 3, they received both cortisol and dexame...

Although hydrocortisone is the standard replacement therapy for primary or secondary adrenal insufficiency (AI), there are limited data on dosage requirements and the value of salivary monitoring in this patient group. We assessed inter-individual variability in cortisol metabolism and relationships between plasma and salivary cortisol profiles in 27 patients. Ten (3 male) patients had primary AI and 17 (8 male) secondary AI. Salivary and plasma cortisol levels were measured a...

Hydrocortisone is the standard replacement therapy in patients with primary or secondary adrenal insufficiency (AI) but there is no current consensus on the most appropriate replacement dose and the extent to which this varies between individuals. This study examines inter-individual variability in cortisol metabolism in patients taking hydrocortisone therapy and investigates the relationship between plasma and salivary concentrations.Subjects and Method...

Aims: To compare the effect of a standard Sex Steroid Regimen (sSSR) with a physiological SSR (pSSR) on androgen status in young women with premature ovarian failure (POF).Patient Population: Seven women with POF were evaluated for the study. The median age was 28 years (range 21–36) and the median duration of ovarian failure was 14 years (range 4–25).Methods: An open label randomised, controlled, crossover study over 28 ...

Recent studies in non-hypertensive patients have shown aldosterone renin ratio (ARR) to be heritable and associated with increased risk of blood pressure (BP) elevation. Furthermore, a raised ARR is present in 10% of hypertensive patients although the precise significance of this is unclear. The magnitude of heritability of ARR will indicate the influence of genetic determination of the phenotype. In this study, we estimated the heritabilities of the components of ARR and the ...