Endocrine Abstracts

Serum testosterone level is known to inversely correlate with insulin sensitivity and obesity in men. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that testosterone replacement therapy reduces insulin resistance and visceral adiposity in Type 2 diabetic men. Adipocytokines are hormones secreted by adipose tissue and contribute to insulin resistance. We report a double-blind placebo controlled crossover study in 20 hypogonadal Type 2 diabetic men examining the effect of testostero...

Thyroid hormone and TSH levels change during pregnancy yet most laboratories use reference ranges derived from subjects who are not pregnant and male. Does this lead to an underestimation of thyroid disorders in pregnancy?We have derived our own reference range for Free T4 and TSH levels in pregnancy. The hormones were measured in 82 euthyroid mothers at booking and 68 at 28 weeks of pregnancy. Mean (95%CI: reference range of +2SD) FT4 levels were...

Low testosterone levels are a common in men with coronary artery disease and Type 2 diabetes (DM2). Testosterone replacement therapy improves insulin sensitivity and glycaemic control in men with diabetes and improves numerous other cardiovascular risk factors. Interest in testosterone as a potential treatment for cardiovascular disease continues to grow. Low HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) levels are recognised as an independent cardiovascular risk factor and comprise part of the met...

Critical clinical changes of pulmonary function and weight occur in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) antecedent to the development of frank Diabetes Mellitus (DM). Impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) signifies diminished Insulin secretion and increased peripheral insulin resistance, correlating with worse clinical status, under nutrition and impaired pulmonary function. Insulin therapy has been associated with improvement in anthropometric data and an arrest in decline in force...

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) in patients with cystic fibrosis(CF) signifies a six fold rise in mortality and is associated with declining pulmonary function. The pathophysiology is multifactorial but largely due to Insulinopenia which is due to global islet cell fibrosis and accompanied by loss of islet alpha cells. Insulin treatment improves weight, the bacterial milieu, and lung function but is associated with hypoglycaemia. These patients may ...

Background: Surgery, sometimes supported by adjunctive radiotherapy (RT) are the treatments of choice for patients with non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFA). Previous studies have implicated these treatments in deficits of cognitive function, particularly memory and executive functioning, although this research has often been confounded by the inclusion of patients with hormone producing tumours. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of RT on psychometric funct...

Men with Type 2 diabetes have a high prevalence of low testosterone levels. Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity and glycaemic control in men with Type 2 diabetes. TRT also reduces fat mass and central obesity. The androgen receptor CAG repeat polymorphism length (AR CAG) correlates positively with transcriptional activity of the receptor as well as body fat, and insulin levels in healthy men. Most studies have not found an assoc...

A minority of patients with hyperthyroidism resulting from relapsed Grave’s disease or autonomous nodules refuse definitive treatment with surgery or radioiodine, and request long-term anti-thyroid medication. There are few data concerning the safety and efficacy of this therapeutic modality.We performed a retrospective analysis of 13 patients (8 relapsed Grave’s disease, 5 toxic MNG), 12F, median age 60 (31–76) yrs and duration of long-te...

A 27-year-old woman presented with severely symptomatic Graves and ophthalmopathy (FT4 49.1; TSI 53). Despite 60 mg carbimazole and 240 mg propranolol she required admission to control her symptoms and thyroid function, changing to propylthiouracil 800 mg daily with propranolol (FT4 19.9). Whilst considering thyroidectomy a 6-week pregnancy was confirmed. She relapsed (? compliance) and was admitted at 14 weeks with hyperemesis gravidarum (FT4 >77.2), which responded to an...

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with increased prevalence of low serum testosterone levels in men [1]. Testosterone levels in men are known to be positively correlated with insulin sensitivity and negatively with visceral obesity. We performed a double blind placebo controlled crossover study to determine the effect of testosterone treatment on insulin resistance and glycaemic control in 24 hypogonadal men (10 patients treated with insulin) above age of 30 with Type 2 d...