Endocrine Abstracts

There are traditionally two major methods of treating autoimmune biochemical hyperthyroidism (Grave's disease) with anti-thyroid medication employed by Endocrinologist's in the UK today. The first is ‘dose titration’ and the second is ‘block and replace’, each treatment regime has it's own advantages and disadvantages and there is sometimes controversy over which is the best approach. A Cochrane review in 2005, undertook a systematic evaluation of all the g...

Primary Amenorrhoea is usually the result of a genetic or anatomical abnormality. Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) is an uncommon cause in which individuals with a 46XY male karyotype are resistant to testosterone due to a defect of the androgen receptor.A 16-year-old female of non-consanguineous parents presented with primary amenorrhoea. There was no family history of delayed puberty. She was of normal female appearance (height 5′9″, B...

Osteomalacia is most commonly caused by vitamin D deficiency. This typically results in features of secondary hyperparathyroidism and hypophosphataemia. PTH secretion is however dependant on normal serum magnesium levels. Hypomagnesaemia due to malabsorption, diuretic or laxative abuse may lead to functional hypoparathyroidism despite typical features of osteomalacia.A 24-year old Afro-Caribbean woman presented with bilateral knee and upper back pain wit...

A 71-year-old gentleman was referred for investigation of bilateral enlarged adrenals first discovered after presenting with subacute bowel obstruction. A CT scan of his abdomen revealed the left adrenal was 8×5 cm, the right 3 cm. No other abnormalities were detected.The patient was otherwise well. No other medical history was volunteered. On examination, he was of short stature (height 1.47 m) with a normal pattern of pubic and axillary hair. Bloo...

A 53-year-old gentleman was seen following a recent diagnosis of type 2 diabetes in May 2009. He had suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage in 1993 and remained under the local tertiary centre after developing secondary hypogonadism treated with testosterone replacement. The cause had never been established.The patient had previously been diagnosed with seronegative HLA B27 arthropathy and in December 2008 was admitted with acute cardiac failure and atrial ...

Introduction: Moderate hyperprolactinaemia occurring in a patient with a normal pituitary MRI, assuming macroprolactin and stress are excluded, is generally considered to be due to a lesion below the level of detection of the MRI scanner. Most patients with mild-moderate hyperprolactinaemia and a normal MRI respond to dopamine agonist therapy. We describe a patient who had prolactin elevation typical of a prolactin-secreting macroadenoma, but with a normal MRI, and in whom the...