Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Cushing’s disease is the most common cause of endogenous Cushing’s syndrome in adults, affecting females>males (ratio 3:1). In suspected cases, careful clinical assessment is required to ascertain a pre-test probability. This is followed by robust biochemical testing, which guides further management.One-week test protocol: Congruent biochemical tests are conducted over a one-week period in an outpatient setting. Patients attend on d...

Background: Primary hypothyroidism affects about 3% of the general population (5.1% women and 0.9% men). The majority of people are treated adequately with levothyroxine. However about 5–10% of hypothyroid patients (representing between 75 000 and 150 000 adults in the UK) continue to experience profound and sometimes disabling symptoms, such as fatigue/depression/impaired cognition, in spite of being adequately replaced biochemically. Before any trial of alternatives to ...

The effect of subclinical hypothyroidism (SH) and thyroid autoimmunity on adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcome, are still subject of interest and controversy. Nowadays, guidelines recommend establishing reference values of local thyroid hormones that allow definition of the SH in a specific population. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of SH and autoimmunity in early pregnancy on adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcome in our population. The reference range...

Case history: An 18-year-old Caucasian female presented with primary amenorrhoea after her younger sister aged 16 years old started menstruating. She had a normal childhood and progressed through puberty normally, with no past medical history or family history. BMI was 22.6 with a normal examination including secondary sexual characteristics (Tanner Stage 5) and no signs of hyperandrogenism.Investigations and Results: Bloods showed an elevated LH:FSH rat...

Chronic inflammation and high expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as Interleukin-6 (IL6), are well-known risk factors for prostate cancer (PCa). IL6 is known to activate the androgen receptor (AR) and has been implicated in development of castration resistance. Therefore, we wanted to investigate the interaction of AR and IL6 signalling and the effect on anti-androgen treatment. We could confirm IL6 mediated activation of the AR on 3 AR target genes in presence of R...

Enzalutamide is an androgen receptor (AR) inhibitor approved for therapy of metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer. However, clinical application revealed that 30 to 40% of patients acquire resistance after a short period of treatment. Currently, the molecular mechanisms underlying such insensitivities are not completely understood, partly due to a lack of model systems. In the present study we established three different cellular models of enzalutamide resistance inc...

Introduction: To reliably assess glomerular filtration is of vital importance if oral antidiabetics are used. We compared the CKD-EPI model, a clinically established calculation model to assess creatinine clearance (CreaClear) with specimens from 24-h urine.Method: Inpatients (university hospital) with diabetes mellitus received a 24-h urine collection (24hClear) or since 2013 calculated CreaClear using CKD-EPI-formula (EPI). From 2014 to 2015 values of ...

Introduction: Mutations activating USP8 have been detected in a high proportion of pituitary adenomas causing Cushing’s disease and have been linked to an increase of ACTH production in corticotroph cells. Whether USP8 mutations are involved in the tumorigenesis of the ectopic Cushing’s syndrome (ECS) caused by neuroendocrine tumors has not been studied.Patients and methods: In this work we evaluate the role of USP8 in a series of 17 t...

Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and prediabetic states (pre-DM) are well known risk factors for stroke. Admission blood glucose level and its control during hospital stay, help predicting arterial recanalization after thrombolysis and middle and long term prognosis. We analysed recurrence, mortality and nosocomial infectious complications in DM, pre-DM and patients without previous or newly diagnosed DM or pre-DM.Methods: Descriptive analysis in con...

Introduction: In metformin-associated lactic acidosis with renal dysfunction inhibition of hepatic gluconeogenesis by drug accumulation may aggravate fasting induced-ketoacidosis. We report the occurrence of metformin-associated lactic acidosis with concurrent euglycemic ketoacidosis in three patients with renal failure.Cases: The first patient was a 79-year-old woman who suffered from chronic kidney disease stage IIIa after traumatic uninephrectomy, and...