Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The current standard of care (SOC) for adrenal insufficiency (AI) is suboptimal due to fluctuating cortisol plasma concentrations. The sub- and supraphysiological cortisol levels, combined with the multi day tablet intake, are associated with negative health outcomes and a poor quality of life. Furthermore, there is a high interindividual difference in the cortisol need, demanding a personalized approach. 3D printing (3DP) has gained momentum within the pharmaceu...

A 57-year-old woman presented with a 4-week history of lethargy, weight loss, polyuria, and polydipsia. Her only past medical history of note was hypertension for which she was taking lisinopril. On admission her initial investigations showed: glucose 22.6 mmol/l, capillary blood ketones Hi and a metabolic acidosis (H+57.5 nmol/l and HCO3− 13.7 mmol/l). She was commenced on the DKA protocol and her acidosis resolved without complication. She was maintained on ...

Background: Euthyroid hyperthyroxinaemia can present a diagnostic challenge. Abnormalities in the binding proteins of thyroid hormones can cause this discordant picture of thyroid function tests, with thyroxine binding globulin being the protein most commonly affected. Familial dysalbuminaemic hyperthyroxinaemia is a rarer cause, and is an autosomal dominant condition which can present with euthyroid hyperthyroxinaemia. This condition is associated with a mutation in albumin w...

Background: Iodine deficiency is a well known cause of goitre and abnormal thyroid function but is rare in patients born in the UK. Iodine is primarily found in fish and dairy products and patients who avoid these foods may be at risk of iodine deficiency.Case: A 22 year old gentleman was referred to endocrine clinic with an unusual pattern of thyroid function tests (TFTs). He had a goitre on examination. He had a background of irritable bowel syndrome a...

Background: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a neuroendocrine tumor derived from the parafollicular C-cells of the thyroid gland. Mutations in the gene encoding the Rearranged during Transfection (RET) tyrosine kinase, play a vital role in the development of MTCs. In patients with distant metastases, only targeted therapy can prolong survival. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) block tyrosine kinases such as RET and thereby inhibit tumor proliferation. However, it is diffic...

Background and objective: Increased prescription of levothyroxine (LT4) has been observed in the USA and countries in Europe and has been related to increased thyroid function screening and a lower treatment threshold, increasing risk for overdiagnosis and overtreatment. We wanted to study the evolution of LT4 prescriptions in Belgium, and compare the use of anti-arrhythmic drugs (AAD) and bone-anti-resorptive drugs (BAD) between LT4-users and non-LT4-users.<p class="abste...

BackgroundLong-term glucocorticoids, as measured in scalp hair (HairGC), are associated with obesity and the metabolic syndrome (MetS). It is not known whether this represents a state of obesity or whether chronic hypercortisolism may influence the course or reversibility of obesity. In this study we longitudinally examine the relation between HairGC concentrations and metabolic syndrome parameters in patients with obesity who participate in a 1.5 year i...

Introduction: Long pentraxin 3 (PTX3), a protein cells produce in response to several inflammatory stimuli, is essential in innate immunity, controlling inflammation, tissue remodeling, and cancer dynamics. PTX3 promotes the migration and invasion of cells in different tumor models. This study aims to (I) immunohistochemically assess the presence and distribution of PTX3 in tissue samples from non-medullary thyroid cancer (NMTC) and (II) (TC) to determine the differences of ci...

Aims: To identify factors associated with early postpartum weight retention (PPWR) in women with recent gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).Methods: Multicentric prospective study in women with a recent history of GDM based on the IADPSG criteria at the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) 6-16 weeks postpartum. Data obtained from electronic medical records, self-administered questionnaires, clinical examination and blood sample collection were used for th...

The role of progesterone in male physiology is mainly unknown. We recently observed that progesterone was the most abundant sex hormone in orchiectomized (ORX) mice with most of it stored in white adipose tissue (WAT) (1). The aim of the present study was to use a sensitive and validated gas chromatography/tandem mass spectroscopy method to determine the origins of progesterone in male mice. Tissue levels of progesterone were high in adrenals of male mice, indicating that male...