Endocrine Abstracts

Context: The effects of cabergoline on cardiac valves have been extensively studied in Parkinson’s disease and hyperprolactinemia but not in acromegaly, a condition at risk of cardiac valve abnormalities.Objective: We examined the prevalence of heart valve disease and regurgitation in a series of patients with acromegaly treated with cabergoline, by comparison with matched patients who had never received this drug.Design and s...

Introduction: PRIMARYS provided evidence for TVR with monthly LAN-ATG 120 mg in treatment-naïve acromegalic patients (63% achieved TVR ≥20% with a favourable safety profile). To help clinicians with therapeutic management of acromegaly, tumour responsive over time needs to be further explored.Methods: PRIMARYS was an international, multicentre, open-label, single-arm study of 90 treatment-naïve acromegalic patients with pituitary macroade...

Introduction: The PRIMARYS study demonstrated primary treatment with lanreotide Autogel 120 mg could achieve favourable tumour and hormone response rates in a large cohort of acromegalic patients. Here, we further interrogate the PRIMARYS database on the relationship between the tumour volume responsiveness and hormonal control.Methods: PRIMARYS was an international, multicentre, open-label, single-arm study of 90 treatment-naïve acromegalic patient...

We present a 71-year-old gentleman who was referred with a 3-month history of tiredness and proximal myopathy, diarrhoea, rapid weight loss and new onset diabetes mellitus.On examination, he had features consistent with cortisol excess including thin skin, abdominal striae, proximal muscle wasting and peripheral oedema to his thighs. Neck examination revealed a palpable 2-cm right-sided thyroid nodule.Laboratory investigations show...

Fetal growth restriction and overgrowth (macrosomia) are both associated with altered placental development and problems at birth. Both conditions have lifelong impacts on health including an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Placental development depends on co-ordinated cellular growth and is enhanced by maternally-derived growth factors. MicroRNAs (miRs) are known to regulate gene expression and we have shown that global miR suppression in pla...

Aldosterone synthesis is heritable; a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the promoter of the aldosterone synthase gene (position −344, rs1799998) has been associated with an increased plasma aldosterone levels and hypertension. However, deletion of this site has no effect on gene transcription in vitro and therefore the mechanism that links genotype with phenotype is unclear.We identified a polymorphism at position −1651 T/C (rs13...

Objective: Our objective was to examine recurrence of hyperprolactinaemia following discontinuation of dopamine agonist (DA) therapy in patients with macroprolactinoma who have had treatment for 3–15 years.Methods: We identified retrospectively adult patients (n=15) attending OCDEM (Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK) with a confirmed diagnosis of macroprolactinoma (established during the last 25 years), who had been treated with DA therapy for a...

Our initial studies suggested that plurihormonal cells are constantly found in early embryonic stages of human pituitary but are very rare later.Aim: A quantitative evaluation and morphological characterization of these plurihormonal cells.Methods: Pituitaries from therapeutically aborted human fetuses of 8–24 weeks, gestational age were fixed (with ethical permission) by immersion in 4% buffered formaldehyde. One-μm-thic...

Background: Insulin-induced hypoglycaemia (ITT) is considered the gold standard method for the evaluation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis. The standard short Synacthen test (SST) has been proposed as an alternative, but it may be associated with falsely reassuring results and potentially serious sequelae.Aim: To compare the serum cortisol response achieved in the SST with the one obtained during the ITT in patients with hypothalamo-pituitary di...

Perinatal glucocorticoid (GC) treatment accelerates lung maturation but may compromise health in adulthood, possibly via changes in hypothalamo-pituitary adrenal (HPA) activity. This study used western blot analysis and a well established in vitro method to investigate the effects of perinatal GC treatment on the expression and function of annexin 1 (ANXA1), a 37kDa protein which mediates facets of GC action in the neuroendocrine and host defence systems. Male rats were treate...