Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Pituitary carcinoma is extremely rare and constitute only 0.1−0.2% of all pituitary tumors. Diagnosis is on evidence of metastasis, although these criteria has been challenged. Majority of pituitary carcinomas are functioning tumours, usually secreting ACTH (42%) or prolactin (33%). Common sites of metastasis include the brain, spinal cord, leptomeninges, bone, liver, lymph nodes and lung. Mean survival after detection of metastasis is around 1−2 years....

Introduction: Although acromegaly and pituitary gigantism have the same pathological cause, they have different disease characteristics.Aim: To study tumour size, treatment course and the most common comorbidities in a population with young-onset acromegaly.Materials and Methods: UK Acromegaly Register (UKAR, 22 centres, 1997-2017) retrospective analysis, enriched with patients from the FIPA-consortium. We defined gigantism as diag...

Case history: A 38-year-old woman presented with blepharospasm, cramping of the hands, and paraesthesia primarily affecting the face and hands. Symptoms had been present for 10 years but had been progressive over the previous 12 months. Symptoms were consistent with neuromuscular instability. Hypocalcaemia and elevated Parathyroid hormone (PTH) were confirmed. Past medical history was notable for anorexia nervosa in remission. Family history was non-contributary. Hypocalcaemia...

Background: Growth hormone (GH) and Insulin like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) discordance in patients with acromegaly is a well-recognised phenomenon. It is unclear whether this is associated with increased mortality and morbidity compared to patients with concordant normal results.Methodology: A retrospective study was conducted on the United Kingdom Acromegaly Registry (UKAR). A comparison of mortality and morbidity was performed among four groups categoris...

Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) presenting as metastatic cancer of unknown primary site (CUP) are suspected to confer poorer prognosis compared to metastatic NETs of known primary site. We performed a retrospective, single centre study to determine the prognostic indicators in CUP-NETs compared to metastatic small intestinal NET (SiNET), before and after adjusting for factors known to affect overall survival. Subjects were selected from a departmental database of 1050 NET patien...

It is known that acromegaly may be associated with headache as a significant co-morbidity. Amongst all acromegaly headache patients, there is a unique group with specific types of severe headache that fail to improve despite acromegaly therapy and are resistant to conventional analgesics, however, immediately respond to subcutaneous short-acting (SA) somatostatin analogue (SSA) treatment. We have surveyed 8 tertiary specialist UK centres and identified 18 patients (6 females) ...