Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
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23rd Joint Meeting of the British Endocrine Societies with the European Federation of Endocrine Societies

ea0007p226 | Thyroid | BES2004

Outcome of atrial fibrillation complicating hyperthyroidism

Osman F , Daykin J , Sheppard M , Gammage M , Franklyn J

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the commonest dysrhythmia (after sinus tachycardia) complicating hyperthyroidism. We have previously reported increased vascular mortality in hyperthyroidism and postulate this reflects the prevalence of AF. We recruited a consecutive series of 425 subjects with overt hyperthyroidism (n=334 females, 91 males) and determined the prevalence and outcome of AF. All had 12 lead ECG and 24h Holter monitoring before and after antithyroid treatment with thi...

ea0007p227 | Thyroid | BES2004

No association of a polymorphism in the kozak sequence of the CD40 gene and Graves' disease in a UK Caucasian population

Foxall H , Heward J , Franklyn J , Gough S

Graves' disease (GD) is an autoimmune disease of the thyroid gland with unknown aetiology thought to be caused by a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors. To date, the HLA region on chromosome 6p21 and the CTLA-4 gene on chromosome 2q33 are thought to account for about 50% of the genetic component of GD with the remaining genetic contribution likely to be made up of many genes each exerting a small effect on predisposition to disease. A recent study (To...

ea0007p228 | Thyroid | BES2004

Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - past, present and future

Hardy J , Hosani H , Salah M , Zayed R , Dhatt G , Doss I

Introduction :CH diagnosis has advanced from no screening in the past , to cord bloodscreening -free thyroxine(FT4) ,Tawam and Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH),Oasis Hospitals- to the present National Screening Programme (NSP) for capillary TSH from January ,1998.Aim :To screen all newborns and to scan and treat all positive cases before 21 days and to monitor progress and outcome....

ea0007p229 | Thyroid | BES2004

Twenty-four hour hormone profiles of TSH, free T3 and free T4 in hypothyroid patients on combined T3/T4 therapy

Siddique H , Saravanan P , Simmons D , Greenwood R , Peters T , Dayan C

Objective: To determine the 24hour thyroid hormone profile on patients with combined T3/T4 therapy.Methods: Two subgroup of patients (10 on combined T3/T4 (study, S) and 10 T4 alone (control, C) were randomly selected from 697 patients who were already involved in WATTS study, after ethical approval. Prior to study entry all patients were on 100micrograms or more of T4. The study group received 10micrograms of T3 in place of 50micrograms of T4 while the ...

ea0007p230 | Thyroid | BES2004

Thyroid hormones and TPO-antibodies in the cord blood of newborns

Bohnet H , Narwak M , Ebert P , Peters N

Due to early demission of women soon after parturition neonatal (nn) TSH-screening of the new born becomes a problem. Therefore we investigated, whether measurements of TSH (Units per liter), free thyroxine (fT4 picogram per millilitre) and antibodies against thyroxine-peroxidase (a-TPO, Units per millilitre) in cord blood of spontaneously delivered babies at term, might be an alternative. Routine (nn) TSH-screening was recommended to be carried out on day 5 of life. Their mot...

ea0007p231 | Thyroid | BES2004

Pretibial myxoedema as the first manifestation of Graves disease

Watt A , Vaidya B , Macleod K

Pretibial myxoedema (thyroid-associated dermopathy), an extrathyroidal manifestation of Graves disease, is a localized thickening of the skin due to accumulation of acid mucopolysacharides (glycosaminoglycans). Almost invariably, pretibial myxoedema occurs in the presence of ophthalmopathy.We report the case of a 57-year-old man of North African origin, who presented with pretibial myxoedema as the first manifestation of Graves disease. He was admitted w...

ea0007p232 | Thyroid | BES2004

Thyroxine replacement monitoring using a computerised register: the North Trent experience

Lee S , Stevens V , Parramore A , Weetman A , Allahabadia A

Background: Community based surveys have revealed that approximately 20% of patients taking thyroxine have low serum TSH concentrations. Likewise, a high proportion of patients (27%) have been found to have high TSH concentrations. Suboptimal thyroxine treatment, in particular overtreatment, is associated with significant potential health risks including atrial fibrillation and osteoporosis. In Sheffield, thyroxine treated patients are routinely enrolled on a computerised thyr...

ea0007p233 | Thyroid | BES2004

Estimators of number- and volume-weighted mean volume of colloid in the thyroid gland of rats

#M-L|#Hartoft-Nielsen|# , Rasmussen A , Feldt-Rasmussen U , Buschard K , Bock T

In the thyroid gland the volume of colloid in the follicles varies considerably. The usually used number weighted mean volume (Vn) does not describe this variation in the distribution of the volume of colloid.Aim: To develop a set of assumption-free stereological methods to determine the variation of the volume of colloid in respect of number and size and to determine the coefficient of this variation (CV). For this purpose we introduce the volume-weight...

ea0007p234 | Thyroid | BES2004

Adjunctive lithium improves outcome in patients given radioiodine for hyperthyroidism

Murphy E , Winstanley G , Frank J , Meeran K

Lithium blocks the release of organic iodine and thyroid hormone from the thyroid gland without affecting thyroidal radioactive iodine (RAI) uptake. From August 2001, we have been using lithium carbonate 800mg nocte as an adjunct to RAI treatment for thyrotoxicosis. Antithyroid medication is stopped and lithium started 3 days before RAI. Lithium is continued for 10 days in total with levels checked at 3 and 10 days. Thyroid function tests (TFTs) are measured 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 ...

ea0007p235 | Thyroid | BES2004

Evaluation of thyroid function in patients with chronic active HCV and HBV hepatitis treated with interferon-alpha

Esfahanian F , Alavian M , Ziaee A

Aims: To evaluate thyroid gland dysfunction during interferon alfa (INF-alpha)therapy in patients with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV)Methods: 58 patients with HCV and 18 patients with HBV were studied prospectively before and with 2 months intervals during INF-alpha therapy. Measurements of serum thyroxine,triiodothyronine, thyrotropine, triiodothyronine resin uptake, thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAbs), and thyroglobulin anti...

ea0007p236 | Thyroid | BES2004

Hypothyroidism is less frequent following radioactive iodine treatment for toxic nodular goitre than Graves' disease

Adamali H , Gibney J , McKenna T

Since the thyroid is diffusely active in Graves' disease (GD) but exhibits focal activity in toxic nodular goitre (TNG), we tested the hypothesis that hypothyroidism will occur more frequently following radioactive iodine treatment (RAI), in patients with GD compared to those with TNG. To do this we reviewed the outcome of treatment in 86 patients, age 49.7 plus/minus 1.5 years (mean plus/minus SEM), with GD, and 77 patients, age 62.7 plus/minus 1.3 years, with TNG, followed o...

ea0007p237 | Thyroid | BES2004

Seaweed as a model for iodide uptake and retention in the thyroid

Burbridge E , Clarke C , Smyth P

Uptake of ingested iodide (I-) in the thyroid is achieved through an active transport system, the sodium iodide symporter (NIS). The gland has the ability to accumulate I- from the bloodstream by a factor of 20-40. Seaweeds, which in vivo bear the same relationship to seawater, as does the thyroid to the bloodstream, have a dramatically more efficient I- uptake system, accumulating I- from seawater by a factor of anything up to 1 mil...

ea0007p238 | Thyroid | BES2004

Multiple thyroid tumours

Qureshi A , Bano G , Nussey S

The majority of clinically palpable masses affecting the thyroid are benign. Malignant thyroid tumours are the commonest endocrine malignancies yet are rare. Most are of a single distinct cellular type, though mixed cellularity tumours also occur, the commonest of which is papillary and follicular. We describe 2 cases with more than one differentiated tumour in each thyroid gland.CASE 1A 44y builder with a family history of medulla...

ea0007p239 | Thyroid | BES2004

Specific effect of thyrotropin on thyroglobulin and on the polypeptides distribution in cultured human thyroid cells

Milicevic Z , Ciric J

The purpose of this work was to investigate the effect of thyrotropin (TSH) on the thyroglobulin and on the polypeptides distribution in primary cultures of human thyroid cells.Thyroid cells isolated from cold nodules (follicular adenoma) were cultured for 5 to 8 days in the presence of 0.05 to 25 mU/ml of TSH (TSH cells) or in the absence of the hormone (control cells). After homogenization of the cells, thyroglobulin radioimmunoassay was performed. The...

ea0007p240 | Thyroid | BES2004

Defining aetiological variants within the HLA class II region that lead to the development of Graves' disease

Simmonds M , Heward J , Howson J , Cordell H , Walker N , Todd J , Franklyn J , Gough S

Genetic variants of the HLA class II region (DRB1, DQB1 and DQA1) and CTLA-4 contribute to susceptibility to Graves' disease (GD). Whilst disease susceptibility has been mapped to a non-coding 6.1kb 3' region of CTLA-4, the primary aetiological variants within the HLA class II region remain unknown. The aims of this study were (i) determine which of the three HLA class II loci account for the primary association with GD and (ii) examine disea...

ea0007p241 | Thyroid | BES2004

The evaluation of arterial stiffness in subclinical hypothyroidism

Owen P , Lazarus J

The cardiac effects of subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH i.e. increased circulating TSH with normal T4) have been documented. While overt hypothyroidism causes increased central arterial stiffness (CAS) and augmentation gradient (AI) 1, there are only limited data in SCH. We have measured CAS, AG and augmentation Index (AI) (AG/Pulse pressure x 100) in patients with SCH before and after L-thyroxine (synthroid) therapy.Peripheral pulse pressure w...

ea0007p242 | Thyroid | BES2004

Premature birth and fetal growth retardation in nonautoimmune hyperthyroidism due to activating thyrotropin receptor gene mutation

Vaidya B , Campbell V , Tripp J , Spyer G , Hattersley A , Ellard S

Nonautoimmune hyperthyroidism (NAH) inherited as an autosomal dominant trait can result from activating germline mutations in the thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) gene. Clinical features described include nonremitting thyrotoxicosis, absence of the features of autoimmune thyrotoxicosis, advanced bone age and increased growth velocity. We report a family with a heterozygous germline mutation of the TSHR gene resulting in the substitution of serine (AGC) by asparagine (AAC) at codon ...

ea0007p243 | Thyroid | BES2004

Controlled anti-natal thyroid screening study (CATS) - early results

Lazarus J , Parkes A , Taylor I , Smyth P , John R , Wald N

This study aims to recruit 22,000 women in early gestation to screen for thyroid failure. The trial is randomised such that half the women are being tested in early gestation (group1) while the remainder (group 2) are tested after delivery. As T4 is important for the developing foetal brain, the IQ of the children from group 1, whose mothers will have been treated with T4, is expected to be higher than that from group 2.Women are entered on the basis of ...

ea0007p244 | Thyroid | BES2004

The expression of mRNA for thymidine kinase 1 (TK1), deoxycytidine kinase (dCK), and thymidine phosphorylase (dThdPase) in the tissue of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) in humans

Karbownik M , Brzezianska E , Lewinski A

Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1), deoxycytidine kinase (dCK), and thymidine phosphorylase (dThdPase) are the enzymes involved in pyrimidine and purine metabolism; TK1 activity is correlated with growth processes, and dThdPase is involved in the mechanisms of angiogenesis. The increased activities of TK1, dCK and dThdPase or the increased expression of genes for theses enzymes have been found in different tumors. The aim of the study was to estimate the expression of mRNA, specific for...

ea0007p245 | Thyroid | BES2004

Does thyroidectomy exacerbate or relieve the throat symptoms of globus pharyngeus?

England J , Hayworth D , Hayden A , Nadig S , Nix P , Atkin S

Objective. Globus pharyngeus is a term used to describe an abnormal throat sensation in the absence of any pathological cause. A thyroid goitre is one of the pathologies that needs to be excluded prior to making the diagnosis as it is thought that a goitre may cause similar symptoms. However, it is well recognised that postoperatively thyroidectomy patients complain of globus type symptoms.It is also recognised that most thyroidectomies are carried out in middle aged women and...

ea0007p246 | Thyroid | BES2004

Electrocardiographic changes in patients with hypothyroidism

Agarwal S , Hira H , Sibal L

Introduction:Hypothyroidism may be associated with bradycardia, low voltage complexes,ST-T wave changes, atrioventricular and intraventricular conduction disturbances. Extrasystoles and tachyarrhythmias of both atrial and ventricular origins have been described in hypothyroidism with the ventricular tachyarrhythmias associated with prolonged QT interval.Aims: To ascertain the prevalence of cardiac arrhythmias in primary hypothyroidism.<p class="abste...

ea0007p247 | Thyroid | BES2004

Regulation of the angiopoietins in thyroid follicular cells

Buchanan M , Ramsden J , Watkinson J , Eggo M

The tyrosine kinase receptor, Tie-2, is expressed on endothelial cells where it has a role in angiogenesis in physiological and tumorigenic processes. We have shown that Tie-2 is also expressed on differentiated human thyroid follicular cells, and that its expression is increased in hyperplasia. This study aimed to elucidate the role of the Tie-2 axis in thyroid cells by examining regulation of Tie-2 expression in primary cultures of human thyroid follicular cells and the diff...