Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: To improve post-operative thyroid surgery practice and to determine if it would be safe to perform thyroid surgery as day surgery. To identify the nature and timings of acute life threatening airway complications, trends in current practice, and gain information on perioperative mortality....

Vascular calcification is a regulated process with similarities to osteogenesis, however, the precise mechanism underlying this process is poorly understood. Pericytes are pluripotential microvascular cells which have been shown to differentiate along an osteogenic lineage. Glucocorticoids are widely prescribed drugs but have adverse side-effects including both vascular lesion formation and bone loss. The mechanism underpinning the contrasting effects of dexamethasone (dex) on...

Graves' disease appears to be the clinical result of an autoimmune attack on thyroid tissue however the immune defect and triggering events remain unclear. The inflammatory process in multiple sclerosis (MS) is mediated by CD4 T lymphocytes. Campath-1H, a monoclonal antibody against the CD52 antigen of CD4 T cells, improves disease activity in MS and is associated with development of Graves' disease in one-third of patients. Thus Campath-1H provides an interesting insight into...

We present the case of a 34 year old man, previously well, who presented with a 4 week history of worsening headaches and confusion.He was disorientated and confused, but the rest of the examination was largely unremarkable. Admission blood tests revealed him to be profoundly hyponatraemic (serum sodium 100 millimoles per litre, urine sodium 72 millimoles per litre, serum osmolality 202 milliosmoles per kilogram, urinary osmolality 851 millimoles per kil...

A 62 year old lady presented to the clinic with hirsutism, virilisation and temporal balding. Her past medical history included type 2 diabetes, hypothyroidism, ischaemic heart disease and peripheral vascular disease. Her body mass index was 30 kilograms per metre squared and she had mild cliteromegaly. Her serum testosterone was 3.6 nanomols per litre.She had a high dose dexamethasone suppression test and CRH test to exclude Cushings Syndrome or Disease...

INTRODUCTION: The main local complications of radioiodine are transient sore thoart and dysphagia and less commonly hoarseness of voice. Laryngeal palsy is extremely rare. We describe a case of right complete laryngeal paralysis complicating a radioiodine therapy for thyrotoxicosis. CASE STUDY: A 73 year old man who suffers from Graves' disease, mild stable Graves' ophthalmopathy and recurrent hyperthyroidism received a second dose of Radioiodine (15 MiliCuries). He presented ...

Introduction: haemangiopericytoma is a rare soft tissue tumour originating from pericytes and manifest rarely as hypoglycaemia that can be difficult to treat. We report a case of haemangiopericytoma induced hypoglycaemia treated successfully with radiotherapy.Case report: A 72-year-old lady presented with an episode of confusion. She had had similar episodes usually in the early morning hours. She had had a large bladder haemangiopericytoma removed surgi...

Congenital Generalised Lipodystrophy (CGL) is characterised by an inability to store energy in adipose tissue. Integral to CGL is severe insulin resistance resulting in hyperinsulinaemia and premature Type 2 diabetes (DM). Sulphonylureas are ineffective in CGL whilst insulin therapy is complicated by insulin resistance and absence of subcutaneous fat. We explored the possibility of using Metformin and Pioglitazone (both insulin sensitising agents) in CGL.PD presented aged ...

BACKGROUND: Dynamic function tests are needed to diagnose a range of endocrine disorders but often require in-patient investigation. A recent audit of our endocrine service revealed deficiencies that included frequent delay to investigations and cancellation of planned appointments. We developed an Endocrine Nurse Specialist (ENS) post whose role included carrying out endocrine testing in an out-patient setting to assess whether this might improve quality of care for our patie...

A 59 year old woman was referred for further management of Cushings syndrome confirmed in another hospital. Presenting features included proximal myopathy, hypertension and hypokalaemia. Corticotrophin releasing hormone testing suggested an ectopic ACTH source.Within 48 hours of admission for petrosal sinus sampling, the patient acutely deteriorated with type 1 respiratory failure requiring ventilatory support. A chest radiograph and computed tomography scan revealed a rig...