Endocrine Abstracts

“In the Lucanian woods among the oaks ‖ Of green Alburnus’ slopes there swarms a fly ‖ (By us called gad-fly, oestrus by the Greeks). ‖ It's fierce and buzzes monstrously: whole herds ‖ In terror of it scatter through the woods, ‖ Until the sky rings with their bellowing…” Virgil, Georgics, Book III [K.R. Mackenzie's translation].Virgil's description of ...

Carney’s Triad is a rare syndrome, with fewer than 30 cases reported with all three tumors (Gastrointestinal stromal tumor, extra-adrenal paraganglioma and pulmonary chondroma) present, and less than 100 cases with two of the three tumor types.We report a 45 yr old female who presented with bloating, dizziness, sweating and palpitations. Physical examination was unremarkable. Biochemistry showed a normal hormonal profile, 24 hrs urinary catecholamin...

Introduction: Patients with acromegaly are often left with long-term sequelae, among which arthropathy is the most common. Studies have shown impaired quality of life (QoL) in patients with acromegaly, even after long-term remission. Arthropathy is a negative predictive factor of QoL, due to its impact on physical symptoms and functioning.Patients/Methods: To characterise further the extent of the acromegalic arthop...

Introduction: Patients with acromegaly are often left with long-term sequelae, among which arthropathy is the most common. Studies have shown impaired quality of life (QoL) in patients with acromegaly, even after long-term remission. Arthropathy is a negative predictive factor of QoL, due to its impact on physical symptoms and functioning.Patients/Methods: To characterise further the extent of the acromegalic arthop...

Introduction: Patients with acromegaly are frequently left with long-term adverse sequelae. Cross-sectional evaluation of health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) using both generic and specific questionnaires (AcroQoL) has confirmed HR-QoL to be severely impaired in acromegaly. However, long-term HR-QoL outcomes following disease control have been less well-described.Methods: The disease specific questionnaire AcroQoL and three validated generic question...

Introduction: Patients with acromegaly are frequently left with long-term adverse sequelae. When compared with individuals with other pituitary adenomas, patients with acromegaly demonstrate greater impairment in their quality of life (QoL).Methods: The disease-specific questionnaire, AcroQoL, and the generic psychological general well-being schedule (PGWBS) were used to evaluate QoL in an acromegaly patient cohort. Longitudinal data were also collected ...

The intraperitoneal environment of the ovarian surface epithelium (OSE) has an oxygen (O2) tension of 5–12%. This could impact cellular events leading to ovulation. Furthermore, ovarian cancers arising from the OSE (∼80–90% of ovarian malignancies) are likely to experience increased hypoxia due to the relatively poor vascularisation of solid tumours.Using 1%, 5% or 20% O2, we measured the expression of HSD11B1, COX-2...

Androgen deficiency may contribute to sexual dysfunction in hypoadrenalism but its role in normal female physiology is uncertain. The aim of this study was to determine the role of androgens in the aetiology of sexual dysfunction in healthy women. Twenty-nine premenopausal women with loss of libido (subjects) and 13 healthy females (controls) were studied. They were aged 18 to 45 years and in a stable heterosexual relationship. Venous blood was taken at 9 am in the follicular ...

At least 90% of human ovarian cancers originate in the OSE. Most studies indicate that EOC is oestrogen responsive. Paradoxically, ovarian cancer generally occurs after the menopause, which raises the question if oestrogen is involved, where does it come from? We hypothesise that the high circulating concentrations of conjugated (inactive) oestrogens in post-menopausal women are substrates for formation of active oestrogen in the OSE through the hydrolytic enzyme activity of S...