Endocrine Abstracts

Primary hyperaldosteronism (PHA) prevails in up to 20% of individuals with essential hypertension, but often presents a diagnostic challenge due to difficulty in interpreting the aldosterone renin ratio (ARR) largely due to anti-hypertensive medication interference. Interpretation of the ARR in the context of beta blockers presents a particular challenge and may produce false positive results due to renin suppression. We investigated the effects of beta blocker withdrawal on A...

Introduction: Primary Aldosteronism is the most common cause of secondary hypertension. First-line treatment; adrenalectomy resects adrenal nodules and adjacent normal tissue, limiting suitability to those who present with unilateral disease. Use of thermal ablation represents an emerging approach as a possible minimally invasive therapy for unilateral and bilateral disease, to target and disrupt hypersecreting aldosterone producing adenomas, while preserving adjacent normal a...

Background: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is responsible for 5-10% of all cases of HTN. The current gold standard test for determining the side of aldosterone hypersecretion is adrenal vein sampling (AVS). 11C-Metomidate PET/CT (METO-PET) has recently emerged as a potential non-invasive alternative to AVS. As 11C-Metomidate is concentrated within ‘hyperfunctioning’ nodules, METO-PET potentially not only identifies the side, but the exact site of al...

To minimise damage to surrounding tissues, targeted delivery of therapeutics to the tumour is highly desirable, and the development of nanotechnology has shown promising results. Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MIONPs) have been gaining traction over the years for applications such as drug delivery, molecular imaging and delivering hyperthermia for treatment of various cancers (1). MIONPs have great therapeutic potential as they can be produced in various sizes and shapes, ...

Subclinical hypercortisolism (SH) occurs in 5–30% of incidentally-detected adrenal adenomas (AIs). Common screening tests for ACTH-independent hypercortisolism have significant false positive rates, mandating further investigations that are both time and resource intensive. We investigated whether a low basal DHEAS level is a sensitive and specific screening test for the detection/exclusion of SH in patients with newly-diagnosed AI. We recruited 185 consecutive patients w...

IntroductionPrimary Aldosteronism (PA) is the commonest secondary cause of hypertension. Mainstay therapy, adrenalectomy resects both hypersecreting and adjacent normal tissue. It is therefore only suitable for patients with unilateral disease (40% cases), whom are surgical candidates. Thermal therapy presents a plausible minimally invasive therapy, to target and disrupt hypersecreting aldosterone producing adenomas (APA), while also preserving adjacent ...