Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Struma ovarii is often initially diagnosed as a suspected ovarian malignancy due to atypical characteristics on the imaging and hyperthyroidism is only seen in about 8% of presentation making thyroid function test (TFT) an unreliable test to suspect it pre-operatively. There are few case reports on its varied structural and functional characteristics in the literature. However, there are no reports of the influence of an intrinsic thyroid disease...

Introduction: POEMS syndrome is a rare multisystemic disorder including polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, monoclonal plasma-proliferative disorder and skin changes. We aim to describe the course of the endocrine disease in the context of this paraneoplastic syndrome.Methods: 69 patients with POEMS have been under the MDT care in our hospital. Data is currently available for 32 patients who attended the joint haematological/neurological/endocr...

Introduction and aim: In the UK, 15% of couples are affected by infertility which is due to primary or secondary male factors in 30%. Induction of spermatogenesis with gonadotrophins is a long established endocrine treatment for gonadotrophin deficiency. However, there are concerns that some patient groups have very low success rates. The aim of our audit was to define success of spermatogenesis and fertility rates amongst these men.Methods: We retrospec...

The guidelines for the treatment of pituitary apoplexy have now been published in Clinical Endocrinology (Clin Endocrinol 2011 Jan;74(1):9–20). These resulted from a group set up during the London pituitary multidisciplinary meeting.Classical pituitary apoplexy is a medical emergency and rapid replacement with hydrocortisone maybe life saving. It is a clinical syndrome characterised by the sudden onset of headache, vomiting, visual imp...

Introduction: PHPT is reported to be rare in pregnancy, with 150 cases described in the literature. Its incidence is 8/100 000 in childbearing women/year. PHPT may lead to a loss of up to 50% of pregnancies through miscarriage or stillbirth, dehydration, hyperemesis, nephrolithiasis, pre-eclampsia, fractures and pancreatitis in mothers; and death, hypocalcaemia and tetany in neonates. Intrauterine growth retardation, low birth weight and pre-term labour were described. Rate of...

Dynamic pituitary testing is a time consuming and high cost investigation. For effective use of this procedure a close audit of the effectiveness and outcome of testing is required. At UCH we have developed a streamlined nurse led service with medical supervision and we now present an audit of 1 year of testing.Forty-one patients underwent pituitary function testing for growth hormone (GH) and ACTH during 2006. Referral source was from the endocrine team...

Case History: 69 years old gentleman was referred to endocrinology for investigation of a benign appearing left incidental adrenal adenoma (1cm) after being investigated for abdominal pain. He had a past medical history of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension.Investigations: Initial endocrine investigations revealed normal 24h urinary free cortisol levels (twice), metanephrines and ARR. His overnight dexamethasone...

Background: Hypopituitarism is often part of the presenting clinical manifestation for patients with non-functioning pituitary macroadenomas (NFPMs). Rate of recovery of hypothalamic-pituitary endocrine axes following therapy is uncertain with no clear predictive factors.Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the degree of hypopituitarism recovery following surgery and radiotherapy in patients with NFPMs. Methods: All patients t...

Background: Non-functioning pituitary macroadenomas (NFPMs) may present with hypopituitarism. Pituitary surgery and radiotherapy pose an additional risk to pituitary function.Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of hypopituitarism pre-operatively and the impact of surgery and radiotherapy on pituitary function. Methods: All patients treated with surgery and radiotherapy for NFPMs between 1987 and 2018 with more t...

Introduction: POEMS syndrome is a rare multisystem disorder characterised by polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, monoclonal plasma-proliferative disorder and skin changes among other features. We describe the course of the endocrine disease in the context of this paraneoplastic syndrome.Methods: Of the 60 patients with POEMS care in hospital, data are available for 43 patients who attended the Joint POEM...