Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Acute adrenal insufficiency leads to potentially life threatening crises if increases in steroids are delayed or insufficient. The patient is central to early increases in dosage and informing Healthcare Professionals of their steroid-dependency.Methods: To assess adequacy of information given to cortisol deficient patients we performed an audit of case notes documentation. The audit was performed over four weeks, involving 32 patients from t...

Aim: The insulin tolerance test (ITT) is considered the gold standard test in assessing the integrity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. The aim of this study is to evaluate if the 0900 h cortisol levels can be predictive of the patient’s response to hypoglycaemia, minimizing the use of the ITT as it is labour, intensive and unpleasant for the patient.Methods: This is a retrospective study of 110 ITTs performed at the Endocr...

Background: Hyperthyroidism affects 1.3% of the population. The antithyroid drugs (ATD), carbimazole and propylthiouracil, can induce agranulocytosis, a rare but potentially life threatening side-effect with a prevalence of 0.10–0.15%. We assessed the adequacy of our patient’s knowledge of this side-effect.Methods: Patients on ATD completed a questionnaire before attending clinic. The questionnaire consisted of nine questions detailing informat...

A 39-year-old rugby league player was admitted with back pain to an Endocrinology/General Medicine ward. He was diagnosed with osteomyelitis of the spine and was treated with antibiotic. During his prolonged in-patient stay (6 weeks i.v. antibiotic treatment), the presence of purple striae on his lower abdomen was noted. Although he did not have other classical features of a Cushing’s syndrome including proximal myopathy, he had an increased BMI (38 kg/m2) and ...