Endocrine Abstracts

Orexins, in addition to regulating food intake and playing a role in the sleep wake cycle, are involved in the activation of HPA axis. Starvation induces metabolic changes in the body, including upregulation of orexin and its receptors in the hypothalamus. We investigated the expression and signalling characteristics of rat orexin receptors at the hypothalamic and adrenal level in food deprived animals and controls. Food deprivation induced both orexin type-1 (OX1R) and type-2...

Klinefelter syndrome is an abnormality of sexual development which is usually characterised by the chromosome complement of 47,XXY, although occasionally patients may have multiple X or Y chromosomes, may be mosaic with 46, XY, 47,XXY or have an X-autosome translocation. We present the case of a 43 year old male patient with the phenotypic appearance of Klinefelter syndrome and primary infertility, who was found on karyotype analysis to have an hitherto undescribed inversion o...

A 35 year old lady presented to endocrine services with a background of attempted conception and oligomenorrhoea. Presenting features were typical of acromegaly including sweating, acne and median nerve entrapment. Growth hormone day curve showed unrelenting high levels of growth hormone. Serum IGF-1 was elevated at 154 nmol/l (normal 14.2–36.9). Other pituitary blood tests were within normal limits. A pituitary macroadenoma measuring 1.5×1.5×1.3 cm was found on...

A 41 year old man was referred to the endocrine service at St Barts hospital. He had previously had a GP check-up and was found to be hypertensive, this led to him having an ultrasound KUB, an abnormality was detected which resulted in a CT abdomen being performed. The CT abdomen showed a 38×33 mm well defined right adrenal lesion and the patient was referred to endocrinology. Upon review, the patient had been having palpitations for the past year - particularly when stra...

A 20-year-old female first presented in 2013 with a six-month history of feeling faint, palpitations, weight loss and oligo-amenorrhoea. She was found to have autoimmune thyrotoxicosis with a fT3 15.2, fT4 43.3, TSH <0.05 and TPO antibodies strongly positive. She was subsequently commenced on Carbimazole 20 mg once a day and was biochemically euthyroid within 6 months. Interestingly, however, she continued to lose weight and remained oligo-amenorrhoeic. ...

A 20-year-old female first presented in 2013 with a six-month history of feeling faint, palpitations, weight loss and oligo-amenorrhoea. She was found to have autoimmune thyrotoxicosis with a fT3 15.2, fT4 43.3, TSH <0.05 and TPO antibodies strongly positive. She was subsequently commenced on Carbimazole 20 mg once a day and was biochemically euthyroid within 6 months. Interestingly, however, she continued to lose weight and remained oligo-amenorrhoeic. ...

Testosterone deficiency syndrome (TDS) may well contribute to a number of co morbidities and multitude of symptoms which may affect one’s daily activities adversely. TDS prevalence in UK is 1:500 and certain groups of patient’s are at higher risk of TDS, in particular elderly and patients with diabetes mellitus where 42% are known to have TDS. A retrospective audit was carried out to bench mark our practice in line with a publication of a recommended National/Europea...

Erosio interdigitalis blastomycetica is a special form candidiasis commonly seen in the third web space of digits, but can spread to all web spaces. Diagnosis is clinically suspected in the presence of maceration and ulceration, erythema, sometimes associated with pain. The main predisposing condition is chronic maceration (for example in launderers), irritant chronic agents and prolonged moisture affect skin barrier with subsequent colonization of Candida spp. Direct...

Case history: A 20-year-old female first presented to our endocrine clinic in 2013 with a 6-month history of feeling faint, palpitations, weight loss and oligo-amenorrhoea. She was found to have autoimmune thyrotoxicosis with a fT3 of 15.2, fT4 43.3 and TSH <0.05. Her TPO antibodies were strongly positive. She was subsequently commenced on Carbimazole 20 mg once a day and was biochemically euthyroid within 6 months. Interestingly, however, she continued to lose weight and ...

Prostate cancer (PC) is currently the most commonly diagnosed non-cutaneous cancer affecting UK men. Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) has traditionally been used as the gold standard treatment for advanced PC. Despite the initial response to androgen ablation, tumours relapse and become refractory to clinically approved anti-androgens, resulting in castration-resistant PC (CRPC). In CRPC, androgen receptor (AR) signalling is inappropriately restored by AR splice variants (AR...