Endocrine Abstracts

In 1739 Thomas Coram was granted a Royal Charter to establish the Foundling hospital for the care of abandoned babies. The hospital was established in Bloomsbury and had the patronage of leading cultural figures of the day, including William Hogarth and Handel. Babies were admitted by ballot (white ball in, red ball maybe and black ball rejected), given a new name and fostered until the age of 5. Upon admittance to the hospital they severed all contact with their foster parent...

The human eye is an incredible organ. It can differentiate contrasts of light up to 1:10,000, equivalent to a photographic exposure value (EV) range of 14. The eye can also adapt to any lighting situation, stretching the total perceivable range to 1:1 million. For many applications, we rely on the camera for recording what our eyes can see. But is the camera able to reproduce the full range of light intensities present in natural scenes? The human eye has two types of photorec...

The standard approach to in vitro fertilisation is ovarian hyperstimulation to provide multiple oocytes, which ultimately provides greater choice of embryos, but multiple pregnancy and the complication of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) have been consequences. Single embryo transfer (SET) has been successfully used voluntarily in Scandinavia and regulatory restriction is becoming more effective in many countries. Having a smaller number of oocytes following milder sti...

Our patient a 39yr old man was referred to endocrinology clinic. He described a history of being diagnosed with congenital adrenal hyperplasia after presenting with a salt wasting state at 6 weeks old. After living in Dublin as a child his family moved to Canada for 14yrs. At presentation he was taking hydrocortisone 10 mg twice daily and fludrocortisone 0.1 mg once daily. His main concern was fertility. He and his wife had been investigated in Canada. Information provided by ...

Obesity is a complex condition associated with numerous increased health risks caused by reduced physical activity and an increased consumption of energy-dense foods. It affects all ages and socio-economic groups, and is rising to global epidemic proportions.Lifestyle changes in diet and physical activity are capable of treating all but the severest cases of obesity, although low compliance is fuelling interest in effective therapies, including gastroint...

We report the case of a 63-year-old lady with refractory hypocalcaemia due to surgical hypoparathyroidism, decompensated by malabsorption following gastric bypass, successfully treated with recombinant human parathyroid hormone 1-84 (rhPTH), Natpar. She initially presented with medullary thyroid cancer aged 33 and was found to have MEN2A. She underwent thyroidectomy and developed post-surgical hypoparathyroidism. She was managed for over 20 years with alfacalcidol and oral cal...

Background: Recombinant human growth hormone (r-hGH) has been used for more than 30 years and indications for r-hGH have multiplied worldwide. There has been concern that it might raise mortality, but published data are limited.Methods: The cohort comprised of 3902 UK patients over 18 years of age in 2009, treated with childhood r-hGH at all the major UK growth centres. The total European cohort was 24 232 from eight countries (including the UK), with > ...

Introduction: SGLT2 inhibitors offer a novel approach to improve glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes through inhibition of renal glucose reabsorption. Phase 3 clinical trials demonstrated consistent glucose lowering effects and weight loss. The objective of our audit was to assess the early effects of treatment with dapagliflozin 10 mg in our clinic population.Methods: We performed a retrospective audit of clinical parameters in patients (...

TSH-secreting pituitary adenomas are rare and the optimal investigation and management is uncertain.A 42-year-old lady presented with a three-month history of three stone weight loss, palpitations, heat intolerance and tremor. Her sister was being treated for Graves’ disease. Visual fields were intact.Thyroid function tests showed free T4 concentration 29.5 pmol/l (9.0–19.0) and TSH concentration 3.672 mU/l (0....

The Prader Willi syndrome (PWS) is a complex, neurodevelopmental disorder resulting from absence of expression of imprinted genes in the 15q 11–13 region, usually due to deletion in the paternal chromosome (pd15q) or disomy of the maternal chromosome 15 (upd). Prompt diagnosis of PWS is beneficial for counselling families, managing the hypotonia and poor feeding that characterise the perinatal period and facilitating early interventions that may improve body composition a...