Endocrine Abstracts

Antithyroid drug (ATD) resistant thyrotoxicosis raises difficult management issues. We describe three recent cases of apparent refractory thyrotoxicosis.Case 1: A 31 year old woman presented in July 2003 with thyrotoxicosis. Despite treatment with carbimazole (CBZ) 20 milligrams tds, serum free thyroxine (FT4) concentrations remained around 60 picomoles per litre (11-20). In October, CBZ dose was increased to 40 milligrams bd and dexamethasone 2 milligra...

We report two ladies who presented with thyroid dysfunction associated with neck swelling. In both cases within ten days of consultation they developed rapid enlargement of their mass associated with marked swelling of an arm.Case 1. A 63 year old lady developed sudden onset of a thyroid swelling associated with a new diagnosis of primary hypothyroidism . She had lost weight and felt tired. On examination she had a moderately enlarged woody goitre, there was no associated ...

The incidental discovery of adrenal tumors in the course of computer tomography scanning for various reasons has led to the more detailed study of this type of tumors.The aim was to study the anatomical distribution of primary adrenal tumors at diagnosis.The archives of all patients with primary adrenal tumors having been hospitalized in the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism of Metaxa Hospital, Pireaus, Greece from 01.01.2...

Primary pituitary tumors are relatively rare and mainly benign.The aim was to study the primary pituitary tumors presenting during a 10-year period in a single center.The archives of all patients with primary pituitary tumors having been hospitalized from 01.01.2000 to 30.06.2010 in the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism of Metaxa Hospital were studied. Within this cohort of patients 128 were female (63%) and 75 (37%) were ...

The presence of lipomas is a characteristic of the syndrome of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1. The presence of myxomas, however, is a characteristic of Carney syndrome.The aim of the study is the description of a patient with the syndrome of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 who presented with a malignant angiomyxoma.A male patient, aged 42 years, presented with intense gastric complaints and was diagnosed with a gastroduode...

Parathyroidectomy is the only definitive cure for primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT). The standard for pre-operative localisation of parathyroid pathology at our institution is both a (99m)Tc-sestamibi SPECT/CT (sestamibi) and neck ultrasound scan (USS). The aim of this audit was to assess the accuracy of this standard pre-operative imaging.Methods: Retrospective data was gathered from all parathyroidectomies performed at St Thomas’ Hospital between...

Adrenal carcinoma is a rare neoplasm with poor prognosis. Mitotane (o,p′-DDD) is the only known therapeutic agent with action on the adrenal. Although it has been used for many decades, its pharmacological properties and exact mechanism of action are still debated. It has been suggested that its therapeutic effect is dose-dependent (Baudin et al 2001). High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been used for the exact measurement of mitotane dose.<p cla...

The detection of antithyroid antibodies, specifically of antithyroglobulin antibodies, in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma after near-total thyroidectomy, radioiodine therapy and thyroxine suppression presents difficulties in screening patients for residual disease or recurrence of the disease as it may interfere with thyroglobulin measurement. The aim of the study was to estimate the rate of decrease in antithyroid antibody levels in patients with differentiated...

Familial medullary thyroid carcinoma (FMTC) is caused by germ-line mutations in the RET proto-oncogene. These mutations concern mainly exons 10 and 11, whereas mutations in exons 13–16 are rare. Mutations in exon 8 have been reported in the literature only twice.We performed direct analysis of exons 7–19 and 21 of RET gene in two apparently unrelated Greek index-patients with FMTC, presenting negative initial screening for mutations in exons 10...