Endocrine Abstracts

Vitamin D is essential to the control of calcium homeostasis and is mainly provided by exposure to sunlight. In the UK circulating Vitamin D is subject to seasonal variation with peak values occurring in early Autumn and trough values in late Spring. Requests for Vitamin D assays are increasing but few laboratories quote seasonal reference ranges and many commercial suppliers quote reference ranges for populations living in warmer, sunnier climates. This study established seas...

Virilization in post-menopausal women is usually the result of androgen production by ovarian or adrenal tumours. Androgen secreting tumours account for less than 1 % of all ovarian tumours and include granulosa cell tumours, thecomas, lipoid cell tumours and luteomas. We present a case of an occult virilizing ovarian luteoma diagnosed by selective ovarian venous sampling.A 68 year old nulliparous woman presented with a 15 month history of hirsutism and ...

Background: Angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis are involved in growth and metastatic spread of tumours. Vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) and fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) play a key role in angiogenesis through proliferation of endothelial cells. VEGF-C has been identified as the molecular link between tumour lymphangiogenesis and metastasic spread.Objective: To (1) analyse microvascular density (MVD) and lymphatic vascular density (LVD...

Background: Growth of solid tumours is angiogenesis dependent. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) and fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) are potent endothelial cell mitogens that play a central role in angiogenesis. Very recently intratumoral lymphangiogenesis has been reported. There are currently no data on the presence of angiogenesis or lymphangiogenesis in parathyroid proliferative lesions compared to normal glands.Objectives: (1) To analyse microvascular den...