Endocrine Abstracts

IntroductionCurrent guidelines advocate the use of statins in all patients with diabetes for primary prevention of CHD, regardless of cholesterol levels. Measurement of coronary artery calcium score (CACS) in diabetic patients is reported to offer a superior prognostic assessment of an individual's risk of cardiovascular disease than the Framingham Risk assessment. To date, there have been no studies of CACS in the UK diabetic population.<p class="ab...

IntroductionCurrent guidelines advocate the use of statins in all patients with diabetes for primary prevention of CHD, regardless of cholesterol levels. Measurement of coronary artery calcium score (CACS) in diabetic patients is reported to offer a superior prognostic assessment of an individual's risk of cardiovascular disease than the Framingham Risk assessment. To date, there have been no studies of CACS in the UK diabetic population.<p class="ab...

Background: The growth hormone/ IGF-I axis is important in the pathogenesis of breast cancer and increased IGF-I signalling through the IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) has been implicated in the development of tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer.Aims: To compare mRNA and protein expression of IGF-I & IGF-IR in (i) wild type (WT) and tamoxifen resistant (TR) MCF-7 breast cancer cells and (ii) breast cancer tissue from women with primary and recurrent, tamox...

Background: Due to its cross-talk with estrogen receptor (ER) signalling, increased IGF-I signalling through the IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) has been postulated as an important factor in the development of tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer.Aims: To investigate the importance of IGF-I signalling in tamoxifen resistant (TR) and wild-type (WT) MCF-7 breast cancer cells by (i) assessing cell proliferation in response to IGF-I and tamoxifen and (ii) using sma...

Introduction: The development of colorectal cancer is influenced by dietary as well as growth factors. Butyrate, (NaB) one of the metabolic by-products of bacterial fermentation of dietary fibre is a primary source of energy for colonic mucosa. It has growth-promoting effects on normal colonic epithelial cells, induces cell cycle arrest, differentiation and apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells. Since it has been suggested that the apoptotic effects of NaB may be due to its syn...

The effect of growth hormone (GH) replacement on thyroid function in hypopituitary patients has only been studied in small groups of children and adults with conflicting results.We aimed to define the effect and clinical significance of adult GH replacement on thyroid status in a large cohort of 243 patients with hypopituitarism due to various causes. 84 patients were considered euthyroid before GH treatment and 159 patients had central hypothyroidism an...

Introduction: Patients with acromegaly have an increased risk of colorectal cancer and pre-malignant adenomatous polyps; however the frequency of colonoscopic screening remains unclear.Aims: To determine optimum frequency for repeated colonoscopy of acromegalic patients.Methods: Since 1992, 254 patients (mean age 56.6 years) at our centre have undergone at least one fibre-optic colonoscopic surveillance; 156, 60 and 15 patients hav...

The preparation of Sandostatin LAR® injections using a 2 ml ampoule of vehicle solution may be associated with some technical difficulties of administration, with adverse consequences for patients. The development of a 2.5 ml prefilled syringe may alleviate some of these problems. We have compared these two methods of Sandostatin LAR® administration in 17 patients with acromegaly and 5 patients with neuro-endocrine tumours, (6 drug naïve, 1...