Endocrine Abstracts

ObjectivesTo compare our practice, at Sunderland Royal Hospital, to the recommendations of NIH Consensus Development Programme (February 2002) and BAES.MethodRetrospective audit of patients who had adrenal mass on imaging studies done between 1996–2004.Patients who had incidentally detected adrenal mass were included. Patients with symptoms and / or signs suggesting adrenal mass pr...

Paraganglioneuromas producing predominantly dopamine are very rare. Such tumours are potentially malignant and often tend to have atypical clinical presentation. Majority of the patients are normotensive and tumours are detected incidentally on imaging studies. We report a case of dopamine secreting – malignant paraganglioneuroma with spinal metastasis. A 65-year-old man was referred to the endocrinology clinic after an incidental finding of large right para-adrenal mass ...

We describe a case of parathyroid carcinoma which is a rare, yet important cause of primary hyperparathyroidism.A 22 year old soldier was referred by army medical officer because of abnormal blood test results. He gave a history of weight loss of about 10 kg, increasing shortness of breath and malaise for 1 month prior to presentation. His past medical history was unremarkable, he was a non smoker and did not drink alcohol. He was not on any regular trea...

Differentiating aldosterone-producing adenomas (APA) from bilateral adrenal hyperplasia (BAH) as a cause of Conn’s syndrome (CS) is crucial for appropriate management. We have prospectively evaluated the relative contributions of PST, adrenal imaging by Computed Tomography (CT) and AVS in the differential diagnosis of CS.We investigated 25 consecutive patients with CS referred to our unit with an identical protocol. Every patient underwent PST, CT a...

A 27-year-old woman presented with a 6-week history of weight loss, excessive thirst, nocturia and lethargy. She had no significant past medical or family history. At presentation she was unwell, tachycardic and had a blood pressure of 174/100 mm Hg. Physical examination was otherwise unremarkable. Her urine dipstick was strongly positive for glucose and ketones. The plasma glucose was 21.7 mmols/l. An arterial blood gas showed a pH of 7.35 and bicarbonates of 23. She was trea...

Primary Carcinoid tumour of Epididymis is a very rare presentation. It accounts to only 0.23% of Carcinoid tumours. Here we present a patient with Primary Carcinoid tumour of Epididymis, which was successfully resected.A 57 year old gentleman with no significant past medical history was seen with painless swelling of his Right testes. He had no symptoms such as weight loss, Diarrhoea or flushing on direct questioning. Examination revealed a Solid, non-te...

A 50 year old lady undergoing elective surgery for pyloric stenosis secondary to chronic ulceration, was diagnosed with primary hyperparathyroidism (calcium 3 mmol/l), elevated parathyroid hormone (PTH). Following exploratory parathyroidectomy, left and right superior parathyroid adenomas were removed. 2 years later she re-presented with hypercalcaemia (Calcium 2.74 mmol/l, PTH 26.5 pmol/l (1.1–6.8 pmol/l)) and appeared Cushingoid. Investigations confirmed Cushing’s ...

A 73-year-old woman presented with hypoglycaemic collapse and a capillary blood sugar of 0.7 mmol/l and required continuous intravenous dextrose to maintain euglycaemia. There was two-week history of night sweats and overnight snacking. One year previous, the patient had been diagnosed with a gastric adenocarcinoma and had undergone a sub-total gastrectomy and chemo-radiotherapy. Physical examination was unremarkable. Liver function was normal except an elevated alkaline phosp...

We present a case of a six year old boy with an enlarging thyroid mass. He was asymptomatic, euthyroid and had no family history of thyroid disease.Examination and neck ultrasound showed hard mass replacing left thyroid lobe with no lymphadenopathy. FNA cytology suggested diagnosis of lymphoepithelial cyst of the thyroid.Left hemithyroidectomy and isthmusectomy was performed. At operation no lymphadenopathy was seen and right thyro...

A 50-year-old woman was admitted to hospital feeling unwell.Biochemistry: Calcium 3.46 (2.15–2.6),PO4 0.42 (0.8–1.5), AlkalinePhosphatase 259 (30–95). She had been diagnosed 3 years ago with Carcinoma breast and had undergone surgery,chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Regular follow-up had not shown any recurrence.No breast lump or bony tenderness was recorded.Further biochemistry: PTH 30 (0–6...

Adrenal rest tumours are well described in 21-hydroxylase deficiency but less frequently in 11-β hydroxylase (11-β OH) deficiency. We report a case with an established diagnosis of 11-β OH deficiency with non-compliance to steroid treatment and endocrine follow-up.He presented to Urology with haemospermia.He was found to have scrotal swellings. Ultrasound confirmed bilateral testicular tumours.CAT scan showed small para-aortic lymph nodes ...

Colocalisation of hormones has been demonstrated for growth hormone (GH) and prolactin in the normal adult human pituitary, and for many other hormones in pituitary adenomas. We have investigated whether colocalisation of GH and other hormones occurs earlier, during onto-genesis. Pituitaries from therapeutically aborted male human fetuses of 15–20 weeks gestational age (with ethical approval) were fixed by immersion in 4% buffered formaldehyde and divided in halves, one o...