Endocrine Abstracts

2–3% of the UK population are prescribed glucocorticoid (GC) therapy and their adverse effects contribute to a significant health burden. Suppression of endogenous GC secretion is a recognized complication of therapy, but the magnitude of the problem, together with its clinical consequences have not been determined. We conducted a retrospective study across all specialties in a large secondary–tertiary care center identifying 2782 patients who underwent 3666 250 &#95...

Background: The short Synacthen test (SST) is the most widely used dynamic assessment of adrenal reserve. In some situations, the SST may be difficult to perform. Random basal cortisol levels could provide an alternative screening assessment to rationalize which patients need dynamic testing. This is highly clinically relevant, given the large numbers of patients taking prescribed glucocorticoids who are at risk of iatrogenic adrenal suppression.Methods:...

Background: Mitotane, 1,1-dichloro-2-(o chlorophenyl) -2- (p-chloro phenyl) ethane (o,p′-DDD) is a compound which represents the effective agent in the treatment of the adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), able to block cortisol synthesis. Nevertheless the biological mechanism induced by this treatment in this cancer remains unknown. Recently, there has been a strong interest in applying proteomics to foster a better understanding of disease proces...

The 250 mg short synacthen test (SST) is the most commonly used tool to assess the integrity of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. There are many instances when compromise to HPA-axis function is potentially reversible (including the use of suppressive dose of prescribed glucocorticoids), but currently there are no data to guide clinicians as to the frequency of repeat testing or to the likelihood of HPA-axis recovery. We performed an observational, retrospective, anal...