Endocrine Abstracts

A 19-year-old Cushingoid lady was referred with significant hirsutism requiring daily facial shaving despite previous laser epilation and regular waxing. She had a background history of PCOS, polycythaemia, hypertension and had been labelled as having a ‘Cushingoid appearance’. Extensive investigations elsewhere (UFCs, MR pituitary, and CT adrenals) had failed to diagnose the syndrome. She was taking metformin to regulate menses and lercanidipine and bisprolol. Spiro...

Introduction: Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) has an excellent prognosis. However, DTC frequently metastasizes to cervical lymph nodes (CLN). In case of suspicious ultrasonography findings, the fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is usually required to confirm or exclude metastasis. The combination of FNA-cytology and thyroglobulin (Tg) measurements in the needle washout has been reported to increase the sensitivity of FNA in identifying lymph node metastases from DTC, particular...

As days become shorter susceptible people typically develop a cluster of symptoms associated with seasonal affective disorder (SAD): decreased energy levels, difficulty waking up, increased sleeping, weight gain, social withdrawal, difficulty concentrating and depressed mood. These symptoms usually remit in the spring with the increase in photoperiod. There is also evidence for seasonality (i.e. less severe changes in mood than observed in SAD) in the general population. SAD i...

Background and aim: Biophenols can act as powerful antioxidants. Pomegranate (Punica granatum) provides a rich and varied source of biophenols with the most abundant being ellagitannins, tannins, anthocyanins, ellagic, and gallic acids. Recently, we have shown that pomegranate juice consumption may alleviate cardiovascular risk factors by reducing systolic and diastolic blood pressure and exercise-induced oxidative stress. The aim of study was to investigate the effec...

A 58-year-old gentleman who was otherwise well presented with urinary symptoms. As part of his investigation for this he underwent a CT scan which showed an incidental 6 cm right adrenal mass compressing the inferior vena cava and superior pole of the right kidney with a 6-mm pulmonary nodule. He was subsequently found to have a raised urinary normetanephrine of 48.81 (normal range 0–3.3) suggestive that the mass was a pheochromocytoma. Retrospectively he reported episode...

Introduction: Pituitary metastases account for approximately 1% of pituitary lesions, most frequently originating from lung or breast cancer. We describe a case of a pituitary metastasis from colon cancer, a rare origin.Case report: a 36 year-old male, previously healthy, came to the emergency department for new onset jaundice and fever. He also had headaches for the last 3 months, and for the last month diplopia, left palpebral ptosis and low libido. Ph...

Familial Benign Hypocalciuric Hypercalcaemia (FBHH) is a benign autosomal dominant condition characterised by elevated serum calcium and parathyroid hormone (PTH) and low urine calcium. It is a genetically heterogeneous disorder but the majority of cases (type 1 FBHH) can be shown to be due inactivating mutations in the Calcium Sensing Receptor (CASR). This is a guanine nucleotide-binding-protein (G-protein) coupled receptor that signals through the G-protein subunit α11 ...

Introduction: LH receptor plays an important role in sexual development and reproductive function. Mutations of this receptor lead to the development of three clinical conditions: Leydig cell hypoplasia, hypergonadotropic hypogonadism with primary amenorrhea and familial male limited precocious puberty. The first two entities result from inactivating mutations. In Leydig cell hypoplasia, with autosomal recessive inheritance, the phenotypic spectrum correlates with the degree o...

Background: Generously supported by IPSEN)-->Pituitary abscess is a rare but potentially fatal entity. It represents ~0.2–1% of all pituitary lesions. The symptoms are usually nonspecific. The proper interpretation of imaging studies is of extreme importance to the differential diagnoses.Case: Man, 40 years old, begins complaining of occipital headache (25.04.2011), initially with good response to treatmen...

Objective: To study the sleep quality in patients of a primary health care unit and Its relationship with anthropometric parameters as sex, age, BMI and waist circumference.Participants and methods: One hundred and twenty-two patients arrived spontaneously and correlatively for consultation. The Pittsburgh sleep quality index questionnaire (PQ5I) was used to investigate the patients sleep quality in the last month. The PQ5I explores seven aspects: C1) su...