Endocrine Abstracts

A 52 year old man presented with a 4 week history of heartburn and epigastric pain. On examination 6 centimetres of irregular heptomegaly were palpable extending across to the epigastrium. Ultrasound of the abdomen demonstrated multiple liver metastases. Percutaneous liver biopsy was consistent with a neuroendocrine tumour (NET) with positive staining for CAM 5.2, chromogranin, PGP 9.5 and S100 but negative for alpha fetoprotein and CEA. Gamma glutamyl transpepitdase was eleva...

Background/Aims: Prognosis in midgut carcinoid tumours (MGCs) is difficult to predict. Studies of traditional clinical parameters give conflicting results. This is a large retrospective survival analysis of both clinical and biochemical data collected at diagnosis before treatment.Methods: Sequential cases of MGCs were identified using a database in Belfast from 1978. Clinical notes and pre-treatment plasma Neurokinin A (NKA) concentrations, were reviewed for each patient ...

Introduction:Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a potent angiogenic growth factor, has been implicated in various disease states, particularly pre-eclampsia. VEGF exerts its biological activities through two different receptor tyrosine kinases: KDR and Flt-1. Alternative splicing of Flt-1 pre-mRNA produces two products, one encoding the full-length receptor and the other a soluble form, sFlt-1. As sFlt-1 inhibits VEGF activities the regulation of...