Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Plasma normetanephrine levels are an annual screening tool for detecting paragangliomas in SDHB mutation carriers. Sensitivity is increased when patients are fasting and recumbent prior to phlebotomy, to allow use of age-adjusted reference ranges rather than the 1180 pmol/l upper limit for ambulatory patients of any age. We present our clinic’s results of samples taken after 30 minutes of recumbency to determine if applying age-adjusted ranges...

Case history/Investigations/Results and treatment: A previously healthy 36 year old female was admitted to a local intensive care unit with psychosis and intractable hypokalaemia. She had delivered a live preterm baby girl at 33 weeks gestation ten days previously. The hypokalaemia led to an endocrine consultation which revealed onset of symptoms in the third trimester, with no symptoms present pre-conception. Serum cortisol was 2,258 nmol/l with a nadir K+ of 2.2 mmol/l. She ...