Endocrine Abstracts

The diagnosis of Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is based primarily on diagnostic tests evaluating the cortisol response to dexamethasone suppression. Tests based on oral administration of dexamethasone may be compromised by poor compliance. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of a novel intravenous dexamethasone suppression test (IDST). The test is performed by intravenous (iv) bolus injection of 8 mg dexamethasone, with blood cortisol determinations made before injection, then...

Introduction: Childhood-onset brain tumour (CO-BT) survivors demonstrate elevated standardized mortality rates for cardiac disease. Adverse lipid profile and body composition contribute to the increased cardiovascular risk. Little is known about the metabolic changes in long-term survivors of adult-onset brain tumours (AO-BT).Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study to compare cardiovascular risk parameters in CO-BT with AO-BT survivors and healthy ...

Introduction: There is strong evidence that adult survivors of childhood cancer have excess premature vascular morbidity and mortality, the pathophysiological mechanism of which remains unresolved.Methods: We undertook a cross sectional study to assess cardiovascular risk in long-term survivors of brain tumours following cranial irradiation compared with healthy matched controls. The following cardiovascular markers were measured: full lipid profile, fas...

Introduction: IPSS (Inferior petrosal sinus sampling) is a reliable test for differentiating Cushing’s disease from ectopic ACTH secretion. In the past 30 years, Hadassah Hebrew University Hospital has been the sole national referral center for IPSS in Israel, carrying out the test for all patients country-wide.Methods: In this retrospective study we reviewed the records of all patients who underwent IPSS in our institution, for whom electronic dat...

3M syndrome is characterised by severe intra-uterine and post-natal growth failure. Patients have a characteristic triangular facial appearance and disproportionate short stature with tall vertebral bodies and over-tubulation of long bones. The condition bears some resemblance to the Russell Silver syndrome, but is transmitted as an autosomal recessive trait. It has been proposed that heterozygous carriers demonstrate mild phenotypic manifestations of the condition.<p clas...

Hyperinsulinism in Infancy (HI) is the most common cause of recurrent or persistent hypoglycaemia in early childhood, and manifests as either diffuse abnormalities of pancreatic beta-cell function (Di-HI), or focal adenomatous hyperplasia of beta-cells (Fo-HI). Di-HI is caused by defects in KATP channel genes ABCC8 (SUR1) or KCNJ11 (Kir6.2). Fo-HI arises from somatic loss of maternal heterozygosity resulting in the expression of paternally-derived mutation(s) in SUR1 or Kir6.2...

Background: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most common potentially curable cause of secondary hypertension and is a risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. For patients with unilateral disease adrenalectomy can be curative. However, PA remains substantially underdiagnosed due the complex diagnostic pathway required to identify patients with unilateral disease, and the difficulties in accurate lateralization of the affected adrenal gland. Spe...