Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Long-acting depot somatostatin analogues injections are useful drugs in the medical treatment of acromegaly. No previous study has assessed the value of acute octreotide suppression test in predicting responses to depot injections.Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the value of the acute octreotide suppression test (100 micrograms subcutaneously, GH measurements hourly for 8 hours) in predicting the long-term response to long...

Craniopharyngiomas are tumours of the squamous epithelium, which arise in the sellar and/or suprasellar regions from embryonic squamous cell rests of the involuted hypophyseal-pharyngeal duct. They account for approximately 3% of intracranial neoplasms, present with symptoms relating to pressure effects on adjacent organs and often have an unpredictable behaviour. Corticotroph adenomas, usually measuring a few millimeters in diameter, are found in 10-12% of surgically removed ...

Fifty patients (male:female 23:27) with a phaeochromocytoma or paraganglionoma have been seen within the Oxford hospitals since 1985. Further information has been located on 48. Patients had a median age of 42.6 years (range 19.4-74.6) and a median follow up of 13.9 months postoperatively (range 0.6-146.3). The adenoma was unilateral in 44 cases (88%, left 20, right 22) and bilateral in 4 cases (8% 2 Von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL) 1 Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) 1 Sporadic)....

Bone mineral density (BMD) is a highly heritable trait. We sought to investigate site and gender specificity of BMD inheritance in general pedigrees.Probands with primary osteoporosis and low BMD relative to an age- and sex- matched cohort (z-score <-2.0 at either lumbar spine (LS) or femoral neck (FN)) were identified from the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (Oxford UK) (45 male, 102 female). All available first- and second-degree relatives were recrui...

BACKGROUND: Antiangiogenic effects have been demonstrated with currently available somatostatin analogues. The mechanism remains unclear, although some studies suggest inhibition of the pro-angiogenic tumour vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) production.OBJECTIVE: To determine whether pre-operative Lanreotide (LAN) in patients with acromegaly influences circulating VEGF.PATIENTS AND METHODS: Serum samples from six acromegal...

Quantification of the catecholamine metabolites, normetadrenaline, metadrenaline and the dopamine metabolite 3-methoxytyramine is widely used as a biochemical investigation for the presence of a phaeochromocytoma. As with any biochemical measurement it is essential that the results are compared against a reference range appropriate for the individual patient.In order to assess the suitability of published reference ranges for these analytes, observed re...

Introduction: Factors that affect the response to growth hormone (GH) treatment in GH-deficient adults are not certain. We performed a retrospective analysis of our data to determine the effect of age and sex hormone replacement on growth hormone replacement dose and IGF-1 levels in growth hormone deficient adults.Patients and Methods: 146 patients (73F/73M, age range 18-84 years) were referred for growth hormone replacement between 1997 and 2001. The I...

UK National Acromegaly Register collects data on real-life clinical practice in 34 centres. We analysed all GH and IGF1 data to assess adequacy of control on medical treatment (Rx) with somatostatin analogs (SMS) and dopamine agonists (DA).Methods: All GH records (basal, profile or GTT) in database were correlated with IGF1, Rx, surgery (TSS) and radiotherapy (RT), then processed to derive summary data for each patient and each course of Rx. GH considere...

Somatostatin analogues are the mainstay of medical therapy for acromegaly. The introduction of ready-to-use Somatuline Autogel (Autogel) raised the possibility of self/partner-injection. This study explored whether patients could administer monthly injections of Autogel, without compromising efficacy. After ethical approval, thirty patients treated with Autogel for acromegaly chose either the Control or Test group. Control group patients (n=15) received injections from ...

Between March 1998 and October 2002, 62 patients requiring trans-sphenoidal pituitary surgery (PS) and 36 patients requiring endoscopic sinus surgery (controls, C) were recruited. Patients were aged 18–65 years and had not had previous surgery or radiotherapy to the brain. The mean ages (p>0.05) and genders (p>0.05) of the two groups were similar 47 years, 41% male (PS) compared with 43 years, 39% male (C). Baseline IQ of the two groups was also similar, 101&#177...