Endocrine Abstracts

A 39 year old female patient presented with one week history of Shortness of breathing. Over the last four months she noted bilateral leg swelling, which failed to improve on diuretic. Examination revealed no other evidence of fluid overload or heart failure. An element of right heart strain rather than failure was raised on cardiologists review. Subsequently, an echo showed a friable mass extending form inferior vena cava to right atrium into proximal left ventricle. The natu...

Background: Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are commonly associated with insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and a family history of diabetes mellitus (DM). They are therefore at risk of diabetes and dyslipidaemia. Diabetes UK (2006) recommends screening for diabetes in PCOS patients who have a body mass index (BMI) ≥30. The recommended test is fasting plasma glucose (FPG). We therefore investigated 55 PCOS patients and 33 healthy volunteers to test the hy...

Introduction: Impaired glucose regulation (IGR) is usually defined as impaired fasting glucose (IFG, fasting plasma glucose (FPG) is between 6.1 to 6.9 mmol/L) and/or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT, 2 hour postprandial glucose (PPG) is 7.8 to 11 mmol/L). More recently, a haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) ≥ 42 but <47 mmol/mol has been suggested to indicate an increased diabetes risk. Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are strongly associated with insulin resistance a...

Background: Vitamin D insufficiency is very common in general population and in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT). Measurement of serum 25OHD (25hydroxy-vitamin D) is currently the best available test to assess vitamin D adequacy. However, it has a significant seasonal variation, and is difficult to define a serum 25OHD level that is sufficient for bone health, although a serum 25OHD above 50 nmol/l has been suggested.Previous studies conf...

Background: The insulin stress test (IST) is accepted as the gold standard investigation of the hypothalamio-pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA). The test has been shown to be reliable though potentially unpleasant for the patient and has been associated with complications such as loss of consciousness, seizures, arrythmias, angina, myocardial infarction and death. To this effect close medical supervision is always required when an IST is performed.Methods...

Background: Postprandial hypertriglyceridaemia is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. An acute rise of insulin in the fed state suppresses hormone-sensitive lipase to inhibit free fatty acids (FFAs) mobilisation from adipose tissue, and up-regulates lipoprotein lipase to increase FFAs influx to adipose tissue from chylomicrons, that is blunted in insulin resistant states. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is associated with insulin resistance and cardiovascu...

Background: Insulin resistance and obesity are characteristic features of PCOS. Oxidative stress leads to the formation of lipid peroxidation products in the skeletal muscles and has the potential to interfere with insulin signaling and thereby contribute to insulin resistance. Malondialdehyde (MDA) is a lipid peroxidation end product and is widely used as a marker of oxidative stress.Rimonabant has been shown to reduce weight and insulin resistance in o...