Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Prolonged, high dose glucocorticoid therapy is used in to treat a number of rheumatological diseases, including polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR), giant-cell arteritis (GCA) and large vessel vasculitis (LVV). However there can be significant consequences of long-term glucocorticoid use, including iatrogenic adrenal insufficiency, due to suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence, investigation and recovery of iatro...

Background: Acromegaly is a rare Endocrine condition caused by excessive secretion of growth hormone; in 2022, there were approximately 3500 people with a known diagnosis in the UK. Patients with Acromegaly can achieve successful remission of the disease with medical therapy, pituitary surgery and radiotherapy (sometimes a single treatment, sometimes combination). However, these treatment options have associated risks, including side effects, late effects of r...

Introduction: Fracture incidence is increased during and after treatment for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Studies using DXA, which measures a composite of both trabecular and cortical bone mineral density (BMD), have shown reduced BMD during treatment. We therefore used peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) to investigate changes in compartmental (cortical and trabecular) volumetric BMD (vBMD) and bone geometry, and evaluated the influence of tre...

Background: Eating disorders (ED) are more prevalent in young people with Type 1 diabetes than their peers and the combination is associated with higher levels of mortality. However, ED are often under-identified in paediatric diabetes services. Using quality improvement methodology, a screening pathway for ED was developed. Methods: Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews explored participants’ views regarding a screening pathway and choice o...

Gestational Diabetes (GDM) complicates 3–5% of all UK pregnancies but prevalence is increasing with rising rates of maternal obesity. Adaptions to the GDM screening protocol within NHS Lothian in August 2016 to screen high-risk women including women with obesity (BMI≥30 kg/m2) during early pregnancy (approximately 10 weeks gestation) allowed us to test the hypothesis that early screening of obese pregnant women would be associated with improved maternal a...

Disorders of sex development (DSD) are a group of conditions caused by atypical development of chromosomal, gonadal or anatomical sex which pose complex, long-term diagnostic, investigative and management challenges requiring expert teams and close collaboration with families and peer groups. The lack of nationally agreed clinical standards for the management of DSD has been recognised by the British Society of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, and these are now in develo...

AimsTo present a case of steroid induced diabetes and use this opportunity to review the diabetic resources we provide to other speciality teams in our hospital. CaseA fifteen year old patient was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia from a full blood count and bone marrow biopsy following a short history of lymph node swelling. He was started on a treatment regime that included dexamethasone at a dose of 6mg/m2</...

Introduction: Primary hyperaldosteronism (PA) can affect up to 10% of patients with hypertension. Adrenal vein sampling (AVS) is used to distinguish between unilateral and bilateral aldosterone production. However, it is invasive, technically challenging and is only performed in a limited number of centres. This audit aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of AVS in informing the management of PA in a large teaching hospital.Methods: A retrospective audit o...

Neuroendocrine tumours presenting in the bronchial or gastrointestinal tract often present with metastatic disease. Whereas well recognised sites of metastases include liver, lymph nodes and bones, they can also arise in unusual locations sometimes causing difficulties in diagnosis. The breast is an uncommon site for neuroendocrine tumour metastasis with estimates that it represents 0.1% of all breast tumours. Due to the low incidence of these neoplasms and due to difficulties...

We report the case of a 52 year old gentleman who presented to Primary Care with a short history of gynaecomastia, loss of libido and erectile dysfunction. He was normally fit and well, with no past medical history and no regular medications. Initial blood tests showed low testosterone (0.7 nmol/l (normal 11–28)) with inappropriately low gonadotrophins (LH 1.2iU/l (1.5–9.3), FSH <0.1 iU/l (1.4–18.1)). Other blood tests were unremarkable (TFTs, prolactin, FBC...