Endocrine Abstracts

Cortisol secretion follows a distinct circadian rhythm, with circulating levels low at sleep onset, beginning to rise between 0200 and 0400 h, peaking within an hour of waking and then declining through the day. This circadian rhythm is determined by the central endogenous clock (pacemaker) of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, located in the hypothalamic supra-chiasmatic nucleus. The HPA axis plays an important role in maintaining alertness and modulatin...

Patients with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of premature coronary heart disease (CHD). One of the underlying reasons for this increased risk is atherogenic dyslipidemia. Current management strategies focus on the initial use of statin or fibrate therapy (the latter approach indicated in patients with pronounced hypertriglyceridemia).American Diabetes Association recognizes serum triglycerides as a surrogate for atherogenic triglyceride-rich lipo...

Increasing incidence of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) is due to accurate histological study of surgical specimens (incidental, INC) or to improved preoperative diagnostic techniques (preoperatively diagnosed, PD). We evaluate the differences between both groups of PTMC from 2000 to 2009.We reviewed data of patients diagnosed of PTMC (<10 mm) during the last decade with complete follow-up since surgery. Demographic data, tumour size, histolo...

Introduction: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a significant cause of morbidity in childhood. We undertook a prospective study to investigate ADRs causing admission to a UK paediatric hospital: this report focuses on corticosteroids (CS).Methods: Three investigators assessed all acute admissions over a 1 year period and identified ADRs by cross-referencing clinical presentations to known ADR profiles using a standardised causality tool.<p class="abs...

Adrenal-derived glucocorticoids originate from their precursor cholesterol. Scavenger receptor BI (SR-BI) is a major high-density lipoprotein (HDL) receptor that mediates the selective uptake of cholesteryl esters (CE) from this lipoprotein in the circulation. In our present studies in SR-BI knockout (KO) mice and human carriers of a functional mutation in the extracellular domain of SR-BI (P297S), we determined whether SR-BI-mediated uptake of HDL-CE is required for adrenal g...

Objective: The objective of this study was to asses the quality of self-management in patients with primary and secondary adrenal insufficiency and to find patient-related factors that influence quality of self-management.Methods: The quantitative research was assessed by a questionnaire. Mainly focused topics were i) demographic data ii) daily medication intake iii) en route precautions and iv) dose adaptation during medical emergencies. One hundred and...

Background: Increased frequencies of adrenal tumours and testicular adrenal rest tumours (TART) have been reported in congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH).Objective: To investigate the frequency of adrenal abnormalities and TART in an unselected adult population of CAH due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21-OH) and whether adrenal and testicular pathology correlate with disease categories, current hormone levels and treatment.Patient...

Background: The mechanism underlying the spontaneous improvement of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) during pregnancy and the subsequent post-partum flare is incompletely understood. The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) polymorphisms Bcl1 and 9β are associated with an increased and decreased glucocorticoid sensitivity respectively. We examined the relation between carriership of these functional GR polymorphisms and disease course during pregnancy and post-partum in RA...

Introduction: Positron emission tomography (PET) using 6-[F-18]fluoro-L-dihydroxyphenylalanine (18F-DOPA) has an excellent sensitivity to detect carcinoid tumor lesions. 18F-DOPA-tumor uptake and the levels of biochemical tumor markers are mediated by tumor endocrine metabolic activity. Therefore we evaluated whether total 18F-DOPA-tumor uptake on PET, defined as the whole-body metabolic burden (WBMTB) reflects tumor load per pat...

Background: No treatment guidelines exist for CAH adults. To address this we have undertaken a cross-sectional analysis of health status.Patients and methods: Three hundred and eighty patients from 17 tertiary centres were contacted: 203 (53%) consented (138 f, 65 m, median age 34 (range 18–69) years). One hundred and sixty-five had classic and 34 non-classic CAH. The UK prevalence is 3591 adults >18 years therefore the capture rate was 5.7%. Re...