Endocrine Abstracts

Obesity is a polymorphic chronic disease with epidemic prevalence. Furthermore, heritability of the weight phenotype is high. However, within the catabolic leptin–melanocortin signalling pathway, which is pivotal for body weight regulation, gene mutations are rare. This indicates that other, non-genetic heritable factors might play a role in the development of obesity, such as epigenetic mechanisms.In a candidate gene approach, we analyzed the funct...

Chronic inflammation in adipose tissue contributes to obesity-related insulin resistance. The 3-Phosphoinositide-dependent Protein Kinase 1 (Pdk1)/forkhead transcription factor (Foxo1) pathway is important in regulating glucose and energy homeostasis, but little is known about this pathway in adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs). To investigate this, we generated transgenic mice that carried macrophage/granulocyte-specific mutations, including a Pdk1 knockout (LysMPdk1-/-), a Pdk...

Introduction: It has been reported that primary aldosteronism(PA) is often associated with subclinical Cushing syndrome (SCS). In the present study, we investigated the frequency of SCS in subjects with PA.Method: Subjects included consecutive patients (n=43) who were diagnosed as PA between 2003 and 2011 in our institute. They were screened by plasma renin activity (PRA (ng/ml/h)) plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC (pg/mL)) ratio (ARR) above 2...

The more sophisticated laboratory methods are used, the more likely a disease is found at its asymptomatic stage. In particular, diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is currently based not only on the presence of clinical symptoms but on the typical upswing of the serum parathyroid hormone level. Outlooks of patients with PHPT and normal serum calcium level have not been quite clear so far. We tried to contribute to this question in a prospective study that has been...

Background: Atherosclerosis constitutes one of the most frequent diseases and one of the important predisposing factor for atherosclerosis is lipid profile change. Androgen change lipid profile mainly high densitylipoprotein (HDL), and 1 mg finasteride tablets are used for treating androgenic hair loss through inhibition of 5-α reductase, and preventing convertion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) the most active derivative of testosterone in the other hands an...

Introduction: Hypoglycaemia in a non-diabetic patient is not a common condition and is often a diagnostic challenge.Case report: A 78-year-old gentleman was admitted to hospital by paramedics when his neighbours found him unresponsive. He had a background history of primary hypothyroidism. Capillary blood glucose reading done on site was 1.0 mmol/l. He received intravenous glucose which resulted in prompt recovery. All other vital signs were normal.<...

Introduction: LH resistance is very rare and there are only a few case reports in the literature. We describe a patient who presented to us with secondary amenorrhea and very high isolated LH levels who subsequently had a successful pregnancy with IVF.Case report: A 16 year old girl was referred to us to investigate the cause of her oligomenhorrea. She had attained menarche at the age of 13 and had only 5 periods in 3 years. She had no symptoms/signs of ...

Introduction: Hypercalcaemia is a frequent complication of breast cancer with bony metastasis. There is also an increase incidence of primary hyperparathyroidism among patients with breast cancer. We report a patient with breast cancer presenting with hypercalcaemia secondary to both parathyroid hormone- related peptide (PTHrP) from liver metastasis and possibly co-existing primary hyperparathyroidism.Case report: A 53 year old woman, with a history of r...

We report three patients who were referred for possible chronic fatigue syndrome and presented with a long standing history of a multitude of symptoms. Comprehensive investigations revealed a low IGF1 and subsequent insulin tolerance test (ITT) demonstrated growth-hormone (GH) deficiency with a normal MRI pituitary in each case. The first patient presented at the age of 34 years with lethargy, aches and difficulty concentrating. Biochemically the only abnormality in th]e basal...

Introduction: Muslims including many patients with diabetes mellitus practice dawn to sunset fasting during the month of Ramadan. Using CGM recorded data we have investigated glucose excursions with Ramadan fasting in a group of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and good glycaemic control.Methods: Thirty-four patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (8 female, 26 male, age 46.5±11.1 years, HbA1c 6.9±1.0%, BMI 29.5±6.5 kg/m2) ...