Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: With the progress of neuroendoscopic surgery in recent years, the application of endoscopy to transnasal surgery for pituitary tumors is increasing. At our institution, endonasal surgery using an endoscope alone (eTSS) has been performed in 825 patients with pituitary adenomas since November 2001. Among them, 156 patients (18.9%) had GH-secreting pituitary adenoma (GHoma), so the outcome and complications of eTSS-treated GHomas were investigated in the present study...

Pituitary apoplexy is a potentially life and vision threatening neuroendocrine emergency, which can often be misdiagnosed in the absence of the clinical hallmark of sudden onset headache and visual disturbance in a patient previously known to harbour a pituitary tumour. We report a 30 years old male patient with history of Vitiligo who presented to the emergency department with a 1-week history of vomiting, abdominal pain and lethargy along with postural hypotension and a very...

A fundamental problem in pancreas biology concerns the dynamics of beta cell mass regulation. While autoimmune or pharmacological destruction of beta cells appears to be irreversible, adult beta cell mass does respond to specific physiological cues such as insulin resistance. This raises the exciting possibility that beta cells have a significant regenerative capacity that could be used to treat diabetes. In support of this notion, recent studies in mouse models of diabetes su...

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...

The ovarian enzyme 20alpha-hydroxy steroid dehydrogenase (20HSD) plays a central role in the termination of pregnancy in rodents. The enzyme which is expressed mainly in the corpus luteum, catalyzes the reduction of progesterone to 20alpha hydropregn-4en-3-one which is biologically inactive and cannot maintain pregnancy. During pregnancy ovarian 20HSD expression is inhibited, activity peaked in the CL of pregnancy about 24 hrs before parturition at the same time that progester...

Anosmin-1, a protein defective in X-linked Kallmann's syndrome (X-KS), presents a structure comprising a cysteine rich N terminus (CR), a whey acid protein (WAP) domain followed by four fibronectin-like III domains (FnIII); and its function is heparan sulphate (HS) dependent. However, anosmin-1 and HS binding affinity is unknown. Although the WAP domain belongs to a protein family demonstrating serine protease inhibitory activity, the interacting serine protease remains to be ...

Case A:A 15 year old girl was found to have a sellar mass on MR in the course of investigations for secondary amenorrhoea. Prolactin was normal at 305 milliunits per litre and random coritsol was 92 nanomols per litre. She was lost to follow up, but re-presented 2 years later with lethargy and headaches. Investigations revealed hypopituitarism with low free T4, gonadotrophins, prolactin, oestradiol, and peak cortisol of 85 nanomols per litre and undetectable GH with insuli...

Recent analysis has shown that up to 18 percent of the Irish population are obese; a further 40 percent are overweight. Orlistat (Xenical)is a gastrointestinal lipase inhibitor that limits absorption of ingested fat thus aiding weight reduction. We report the use of orlistat outside the clinical trial setting in Ireland from 7 April 2000 to 30 June 2001.A total of 5,251 patients (4,376 women, 875 men) attended 240 weight management clinics (229 in primary care and 11 in se...

Background:With respect to what has been mentioned about the progression of IGT to overt diabetes, and the lack of information in rural areas, and also some unresolved questions about the relationship between IGT and some micro and macrovascular complications, this research was accomplished in the years 2001-2002.Material and Methods:The first step of this study was carried out in 1977 to screen people (1988 ...

Background:With respect to what has been mentioned about the progression of IGT to overt diabetes, and the lack of information in rural areas, and also some unresolved questions about the relationship between IGT and some micro and macrovascular complications, this research was accomplished in the years 2001-2002.Material and Methods:The first step of this study was carried out in 1977 to screen people (1988 ...