Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The 2006 Endocrine Society – testosterone therapy in adult men guidelines were audited against the clinical practice at a UK teaching hospital endocrine department. The aim of the audit was to determine whether patients were undergoing appropriate screening tests for prostate cancer and polycythaemia as described in these guidelines.Method: Patients were initially identified by searching the endocrine clinic letter database for the nam...

A 38 year old lady presented at 30 weeks gestation with a 3 week history of headaches and 5 day history of blurring of vision, worse in the left eye. Visual field testing revealed a bitemporal hemianopia. MRI scan of the pituitary showed appearances typical of a macroadenoma which was lobulated in appearance with suprasellar extension (max height 13mm) and compression of the optic chiasm. Endocrine tests indicated that thyroxine was low for the 3rd trimester (79nmol/l), with f...

Objectives: The aim of the audit was to determine how our current clinical practice differs from that of the national standard set out in the UK by NICE guidance CG87 in regards to the use of exenatide.Material and methods: We measured weight and HbA1c at baseline and then again at 6 months from the date exenatide was started. The UK NICE guidelines recommends exenatide should only be considered in patients with a BMI≥35.0 kg/m2 with a H...

The association of low body weight due to excessive exercise and/or eating disorders, and hypothalamic amenorrhoea is well documented. Delayed or arrest of puberty may occur if low body weight occurs before or during puberty. Normal menstruation is restored once a healthy body weight is regained. In this case, body weight normalised but ovarian function did not.A 34-year-old woman attended our thyroid clinic for subclinical hypothyroidism following an ep...

An important issue for all endocrinologists involved in management of non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFAs) not treated surgically at initial presentation is the frequency and duration of follow-up neuroimaging. Previous studies have described tumour enlargement in less than 15% of microadenomas (<1cm diameter) with macroadenomas (1cm diameter or more) showing a greater propensity for growth. With improvements in neuroimaging techniques we felt that it was timely to rev...

It is now evident that ghrelin is more than just a growth hormone (GH) secretagogue; it plays an important role in energy homeostasis, increasing food intake and fat deposition, has cardiovascular effects, and inhibits cell proliferation.Ghrelin mRNA expression is widespread in human tissues, but little is known about the molecular mechanisms and signals that regulate gene expression at the transcriptional level. To address this we cloned and sequenced a 4kb region upstrea...

The active form of vitamin D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25D3), is synthesised by the enzyme 25-hydroxyvitamin D3-1alpha-hydroxylase (1alpha-hydroxylase). The principal site of 1alpha-hydroxylase activity is in the proximal tubule of the kidney. In order to investigate renal vitamin D metabolism we have used a human proximal tubule cell line, HKC-8. We have previously shown that synthesis of 1,25D3 activity in these cells is sensitive to the concentration of calcium and North...