Endocrine Abstracts

Measurement of anti-thyroglobulin (TgAb) predicts interference in thyroblobulin (Tg) assays and is a tumour marker for differentiated thyroid cancer (dtc). However, there is poor concordance between methods. This is attributed to the nature of TgAb, the method and cut-off used. We have assessed concordance between three TgAb assays and investigated the cause of discordant results. TgAb was measured in sera from 606 different patients being treated for dtc using the Abbott Arch...

Background: A number of reports have associated non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with aspects of the metabolic syndrome, such as insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, type 2 diabetes and obesity. NASH can progress to cirrhosis and hepato-cellular carcinoma, as well as acting as a marker for insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.Aims: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of abnormal liver function in a populati...

Background: An increased prevalence of thyroid dysfunction is reported in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus compared to the normal population. However, the cost-effectiveness or otherwise of screening for thyroid dysfunction in this group of patients is an unresolved question.Aims: The aim of this study was to measure the effectiveness of screening for hypo- and hyperthyroidism, both sub-clinical and overt, in an ethnically diverse population of m...

Cutaneous and subcutaneous metastases are very rare in well differentiated neuroendocrine tumours with a handful of case reports available to date. Head & neck and bronchial NET seem to show this feature most commonly. Such metastases can be very painful and display allodynia (pain occurring on exposure to non-painful stimuli), even if growing very slowly. We describe the case of a young patient who underwent surgical resection of a typical bronchial NET who developed pain...

Introduction: Pituitary disorders are associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Data on the prevalence of pituitary disorders is scarce. Formal routine coding of diagnoses in outpatient endocrine practice lags behind medical coding of inpatients. Standardised coding could improve our understanding of disease burden and highlight areas of increasing need within our services.Objective: Automatically extract and assign SNOMED codes for endocrine di...

Background: The use of opioids in non-cancer patients has increased dramatically over the past few years. The most common endocrine dysfunction with opioid use is hypogonadism, but it has been reported in a small number of cases that adrenal insufficiency and adult growth hormone deficiency can also occur.Clinical case: A 39 year old male presented with general fatigue, loss of libido and sweating for about six mont...

Background: The use of opioids in non-cancer patients has increased dramatically over the past few years. The most common endocrine dysfunction with opioid use is hypogonadism, but it has been reported in a small number of cases that adrenal insufficiency and adult growth hormone deficiency can also occur.Clinical case: A 39 year old male presented with general fatigue, loss of libido and sweating for about six mont...

Ectopic mediastinal parathyroid adenoma is a rare cause of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT), which is reported in 1-1.5% of patients. We present you a case of a 22-year old male, who was suffering from severe itchiness which significantly interferes with his daily activities of life. His laboratory results were suggestive of PHPT (Table 1). His initial scans, including Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) Sestamibi (Mibi) did not reveal any abnormality. Subsequently, increase of PTH leve...

Introduction: Somatostatin analogues (SSA) are a cornerstone in the treatment of neuroendocrine tumours. Two clinical trials have defined the disease control effect of these treatments; the PROMID study of Octreotide LAR v’s placebo, median time to tumour progression (TTP) 14.2 m v’s 6.0 m, and the CLARINET study (Lanreotide v’s placebo), median progression free survival (PFS) 31 m v’s 18 m. In every day practice, however, many neuroendocrine tumours commen...

A 55-year-old female presented to the Endocrine Clinic with Graves’ disease which was treated with carbimazole for 18 months. Her initial symptoms were facial sweating and dry lips on background of a multinodular goitre confirmed on thyroid ultrasound. TSH was <0.01 mU/l, free T4 was 42.2, and free T3 18 pmol/l. Thyrotoxicosis recurred in an attempt to taper down the dose of carbimazole and a decision was made to proceed with radioactive iodine t...