Endocrine Abstracts

Case history: A 50 year old female presented with diarrhoea, facial rash and hyponatraemia. In addition, she described a 3 week history of headaches, malaise, intermittent joint pain and swelling. On examination, the patient was noted to have a malar rash and over the subsequent 2–3 days began to develop necrotic patches on both ears. She had no evidence of cutaneous pigmentation. She took no regular medication, other than dabigatran. Past medical history of note included...

Background: The cost of liothyronine (T3) has significantly increased, possibly affecting prescription practices.Methods: An online questionnaire was designed to assess current T3 use by UK endocrinologists and to determine whether the price increase resulted in a change in primary care prescription practices. Consultant grade members of the Society for Endocrinology Thyroid Network were invited to partake.Results: Re...

Background: The cost of liothyronine (T3) has significantly increased, possibly affecting prescription practices.Methods: An online questionnaire was designed to assess current T3 use by UK endocrinologists and to determine whether the price increase resulted in a change in primary care prescription practices. Consultant grade members of the Society for Endocrinology Thyroid Network were invited to partake.Results: Re...

Asfotase alfa (AA, STRENSIQ, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) is the first FDA-Approved treatment for patients with hypophosphatasia, the result of a mutation in the tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (ALPL) gene. Because it contains the ALP active site, AA is able to catalyse the substrate as the antibody-conjugated ALP would within an assay. Therefore, AA present in a patient’s sample may generate a false positive or a false negative result. We investigated ...

Context: Acromegaly can be complicated by cardiomyopathy. Treatment with somatostatin analogs has been shown to improve some cardiac parameters, but most published clinical trials involved few patients and were not randomized or controlled. In addition, their results are rather variable.Objective: To conduct a meta-analysis aimed at obtaining a more accurate picture of the effect of somatostatin analogs on the heart in patients with acromegaly.<p cla...

One of the most significant health measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic has been extended periods of lockdown. Vitamin D is essential for many biological functions including pregnancy and bone health and modulate the immune system. Many studies also suggested a beneficial effect of replenished stores of vitamin D (25(OH)D >50 nmol/l) against severe and long term COVID-19 and self-supplementation is recommended by the government. Here we report on the vitamin D...

Objective: The diagnosis of premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is a traumatic event for many patients that involves poor fertility prognosis. After such diagnosis spontaneous pregnancies are rare. The alternatives for building a family are oocyte donation, embryo donation and adoption. However, we have few information on how many women with POI finally built a family after the diagnosis and which alternative they chose.Design: We performed a cross-sec...

Background: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare malignant tumour of the adrenal cortex with an incidence of 0.7-2.0 per million per year. The majority are steroid-producing with non-ACTH dependent hypercortisolism the most frequent biochemical abnormality. Around 10-15% of cases are picked up incidentally on abdominal imaging. Management of ACC during the covid-19 pandemic poses specific challenges. We present the case of a 69-year-old man who was found to have a massive ...

Introduction: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is one of the most frequent genetic dominant syndrom in men with a prevalence of 1 in 2600 to 3000 individuals worldwide. NIH NF1 diagnostic criteria are driven by the most frequent manifestations of the disease (café au lait macules (CAL), neurofibromas, freckling, optic glioma, Lisch nodules and osseus lesions). There are many clinical manifestations of NF1 (neurological, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, endocrine and orthop...

Sclerostin (SOST) and Dickkopf-related protein 1 (DKK1) are antagonists of Wnt signalling, inhibiting osteoblast activity and indirectly stimulating osteoclast activity. SOST and DKK1 antibody therapy leads to increases in bone mass and bone formation. However, reported associations between plasma SOST and DKK1 concentrations and measures of bone mass and turnover are conflicting. This study in healthy older men and women (n =379; median 74.1 [IQR 71.5-77.0]y) investi...