Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: Remission rates in young people with Graves’ hyperthyroidism are <25% after a 2-yr course of thionamide antithyroid drug (ATD). Immunomodulatory agents might improve outcome by facilitating immune tolerance. We explored whether rituximab (RTX) would increase remission rates when administered with a short course of ATD.Design: This was an open label multi-centre single arm phase 2 trial in newly presenting young people (12-20y) with Gr...

Inactivating mutations in the thyroid hormone (TH) transporter monocarboxylate transporter 8 (MCT8) result in a severe form of psychomotor retardation (known as Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome, AHDS) due to compromised TH access to the CNS. Consequently, TH-dependent processes both during brain development and in the adult CNS such as adult hippocampal neurogenesis are impaired. Using mice deficient in Mct8, we recently demonstrated a diminished neurogenesis in the adult hippoca...

Background: To determine whether radioiodine remnant ablation (RRA) reduces cause-specific mortality (CSM) or tumor recurrence (TR) rates after bilateral thyroidectomy (BT) in low-risk adult papillary thyroid carcinoma (APTC) patients treated with curative intent, we compared outcome in 1836 stage I patients having BT alone with 832 having BT+RRA.Methods: THEN cohort (1966-1990) comprised 809 patients; 36% having RRA within 6 postoperative months. NOW co...

Dysregulation of sodium-iodide symporter (NIS) function is common in differentiated thyroid cancer, resulting in sub-optimal radioiodide therapy and poorer clinical outcome. Recent developments in identifying proteins that regulate the function of the sodium iodide symporter have highlighted two proteins involved in internalisation of NIS from the plasma membrane: AP-2 and moesin. Clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) of NIS is facilitated through the adaptor protein 2 (AP2) com...

Background: The Controlled Antenatal Thyroid Screening II (CATS) study, a large randomised trial of thyroxine supplementation for suboptimal gestational thyroid function (SGTF), reported a higher prevalence of elevated attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) scores in 9 year-old children exposed to higher thyroid hormone (TH) in utero. Here we investigated if this was accompanied by altered neurodevelopment.Methods: 85 children aged 11-1...

Northern Ireland was one of the first participating sites for the UK screening programme for congenital hypothyroidism (CHT) started 40 years ago. This study aimed to explore any changing patterns in incidence over time. Enrolment in the programme has remained high throughout the 40 years (> 98%). The cut-off value for neonatal thyroid stimulating hormone (nTSH) on day 5-8 of life reduced in ~1995 from 10 mU/l to 8 mU/l to improve sensitivity and specificity. There was a s...