Endocrine Abstracts

The adrenal glands secrete a variety of hormones from the cortex (steroids) and the medulla (amines) that when in excess lead to characteristic clinical syndromes. Dysregulation of the secretory pattern of these hormones or hypersecretion not enough to cause a clinically obvious syndrome is termed subclinical hyperfunction and is mainly found in primary adrenal lesions in the form of adrenal incidentalomas (AI). These are adrenal mass lesions usually >1 cm in diameter that...

The diagnosis of normocalcemic primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) can be made in subjects whose total and ionized serum calcium are completely normal but in whom the PTH level is persistently elevated. In order to make the diagnosis of normocalcemic PHPT, secondary causes for an elevated PTH level should be ruled out, such as vitamin D insufficiency, or renal insufficiency. Replacing the former patients with vitamin D to reach levels now considered to be normal (i.e. >30 n...

Subclinical hyperthyroidism (SHyper) is defined as serum FT4 and FT3 levels within their respective reference ranges in the presence of is low or undetectable serum TSH levels. The most common cause of SHyper is exogenous SHyper due to unintentional excessive replacement therapy in hypothyroid patients or to intentional TSH suppressive therapy for malignant thyroid disease. Endogenous SHyper is commonly associated with autonomous thyroid function as occur...