Endocrine Abstracts

The syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone (SIADH) is characterised by euvolamic hyponatraemia. Patients with SIADH continue to drink normal amounts of fluid, despite plasma osmolalities well below the physiological osmotic threshold for the onset of thirst. The regulation of thirst has not been previously studied in SIADH. We studied the characteristics of osmotically-stimulated thirst and vasopressin (AVP) secretion, and the non-osmotic suppression of thirst and AVP ...

Hyperprolactinaemia in the presence of pituitary tumour can occur from tumour secretion or from stalk compression causing loss of dopaminergic inhibition. It is generally accepted that, in the presence of a large pituitary mass, a serum prolactin level up to 3000mU/l indicates stalk compression rather than a prolactinoma; the clinical diagnosis of prolactinoma depends on the degree of hyperprolactinaemia in the context of pituitary tumour size. Our aim was to examine more form...

Renal resistance to vasopressin has been demonstrated in type 1 diabetes, and in type 2 diabetes with nephropathy. However, renal response to vasopressin in type 2 diabetes without nephropathy, has not been studied.We studied 10 subjects with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes (PCDS, HbA1c > 9 %), 10 subjects with well-controlled type 2 diabetes (WCDS, HbA1c < 7 %), and 10 matched non-diabetic control subjects (NDCS), during a euglycaemic 8-hour wat...

Hyponatraemia occurs in 25-40% of patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) but the pathogenesis is unclear.Objective: We aimed to establish the incidence, pathophysiology and consequences of hyponatraemia following SAH.Methods: A retrospective case note analysis of all patients with radiologically-proven SAH admitted to Beaumont Hospital between Jan 2002 and September 2003. Of 580 patients coded as SAH on HIPE records, 316 were...

The relationship between serum TSH and thyroid autoantibodies is frequently used to classify thyroid disease both overt and subclinical. Further debate has centred on the validity of the cutoff point for serum TSH elevation (generally between 4-5 mU/l) which it has been suggested is inappropriately high. The significance of the presence of thyroid autoantibodies (hereafter termed antibody positivity) in extrathyroidal disease is unclear but an increased prevalence has been rep...