Endocrine Abstracts

Transsphenoidal surgery (TSS) is the most common first-line treatment for Cushing's disease (CD). We have examined the outcome of this intervention to identify pre-operative clinical factors that predict good surgical outcome and to determine the risk of adverse events.We performed a case-notes review of 30 consecutive patients, 20 (67%) female, treated by a single surgeon over a 14-year period. The mean (SE) age was 34.2 (2.1) years and median (range) ...

A 76-year-old lady developed a tender thyroid swelling following a fall at home. One month later she was admitted with acute dyspnoea, and increased pain and swelling in her neck. She was found to be hyperthyroid on endocrine testing: free T4 (FT4) 24.8 (9-20) picomoles/litre, free T3 (FT3) 8.1 (3.5-6.5) picomoles/litre and thyrotropin (TSH) 0.2 (0.4-5.5) mIU/litre. She also had a raised erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) at 54 mm/hr. She was commenced on hydrocortisone and ...

Introduction: There is a large body of evidence to suggest that the GH axis plays an important role in brain myelination. However, results from studies in humans with an abnormal GH axis have varied and therefore there remains no consensus as to whether the GH/IGF1 axis plays a significant role in neural development. No previous studies have used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) a sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique for studying brain white matter tracts, to add...

A 16-year-old boy was referred to our endocrine unit. He had been diagnosed with constitutional short stature (height <10th centile) aged 11, having not grown well for two years. At that time there were no features to suggest Cushing's syndrome (CS), though he was overweight (BMI 22kg/m2, >90th centile) and bone age was delayed by 2 years. A trial of growth hormone (GH) therapy did not increase growth velocity. By age 15, he was developin...