Endocrine Abstracts

Type 2 diabetes is increasing in prevalence and is associated with, amongst others, premature CVD, retinopathy and kidney failure. The aim of care is to minimise the complications through euglycaemia but in the long term, this is rarely possible. Treatment of hypertension and dyslipidaemia also has benefit and patients are often consigned to a lifetime of polypharmacy. Quality of life is affected, especially in those with complications and in those who need treatment with insu...

Sporadic Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is an uncommon thyroid cancer. The prevalence has been studied in two large European studies(1,2). Serum calcitonin provides a highly sensitive and specific tumour marker for this. We shall present a case which typifies the presentation of MTC and discuss its relevance.A 71-year-old gentleman of Italian descent was admitted in 2001 with left lower limb cellulitis. It was documented that he had an incidental goitre, that had been p...

Lithium-induced hyperparathyroidism was first described in 1973 by Garfinkel et. al.The two cases aim to illustrate Lithium-induced hyperparathyroidism which was previously thought to be a rare occurrence and outline characteristic features of this disorder.Case 1.A 51 year old male presented with polydipsia and polyuria. He was known to suffer from bipolar affective disorder with lithium treatment was admitt...

Lithium-induced hyperparathyroidism was first described in 1973 by Garfinkel et. al.The two cases aim to illustrate Lithium-induced hyperparathyroidism which was previously thought to be a rare occurrence and outline characteristic features of this disorder.Case 1.A 51 year old male presented with polydipsia and polyuria. He was known to suffer from bipolar affective disorder with lithium treatment was admitt...

Growth hormone (GH) is thought to have a dual effect (direct and indirect) on bone metabolism. We sought to explore the inter-relationships and potential determinant factors of several markers of bone turnover in GH deficient adults (GHD), as well as possible acute changes arising from GH.24 GHD subjects [14 M, 10F; age (range, 24-74 yrs)] were studied after consent and ethical approval. They were randomised into three groups (GP) of 8 subjects, each to ...

Insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) has been shown to co-vary with renal function in a number of physiological and pathological conditions. However, this relationship and possible co-variants have not been specifically explored in untreated growth hormone deficient adults (GHDA). To examine this issue, we studied 24 GHDA subjects (14M, 10F) in the fasted state twice after obtaining consent and ethical approval. The Cockcroft and Gault equation was used to calculate creatinine...

Use of surrogate indices of insulin resistance depends on comparability of the relationship between glucose and insulin concentrations between different groups. It is unknown whether such surrogate estimates are equally applicable in different ethnic groups with marked differences in insulin sensitivity. We compared markers of insulin sensitivity and secretion in 78 (43 European, 19 Afro-Caribbean and 16 South Asian) normoglycaemic women of (median (lower-upper quartile)) 34.7...

Type 2 diabetes is associated with insulin resistance, failure to suppress lipolysis and EGP and impaired FFA. It is not known which defect develops first.Eleven European women with previous gestational diabetes (PGDM) and normal glucose tolerance post-partum, as a high risk group for the development of Type 2 diabetes, and 11 matched controls (BMI 23.8±4.5 kg m-2 versus 24.6±4.9 kg m-2 respectively) were studied. Insu...

We investigated the relationship between gestational diabetes (GDM) and the metabolic syndrome in 368 (185 European (EUR), 103 South Asian (SA) and 80 Afro-Caribbean (AC)) women studied 20.0 (18.2-22.1) months (mean (95% CI)) following a GDM pregnancy and 482 normoglycaemic women (288 EUR, 99 SA, 95 AC) with no history of GDM. Estimates of beta-cell function (%B) and insulin sensitivity (%S) were derived using the HOMA method. Analysis was by multiple linear regression includi...

Background. Abnormal lipoprotein composition associated with growth hormone deficiency (GHD) may contribute to increased mortality observed in conventionally replaced hypopituitarism. Aim. To examine the effects of forty weeks of growth hormone replacement (GHR) on lipoprotein composition and LDL size in sixteen GHD hypopituitary subjects. In eight patients, VLDL and LDL composition were additionally assessed after eight weeks. Methods. VLDL and LDL were separated by different...