Endocrine Abstracts

Despite i.v. bisphosphonates, including pamidronate and zoledronate, representing the established agents used to reduce calcium levels, a proportion of patients with hypercalcemia either fail to respond to such treatments or relapse following their use.We present a case of hypercalcaemia refractory to conventional treatments that was treated with the use of the human MAB denosumab.A 70-year-old male presented to the emergency depar...

Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) reflects a disturbance of autonomic function leading to a myriad of clinical features. Subcutaneous octreotide injections and intramuscular long acting preparations of octreotide have been used in the treatment of PoTS. However, inconvenience of frequent injections, side effects and theoretical overexposure, as well as cost of the intramuscular preparation, makes them far from ideal.We present a case of un...

Vitamin D is a pleotropic hormone with important actions in a wide variety of cell types. Whilst its role in the endocrine control of calcium metabolism via the active circulating metabolite 1,25- dihydroxy cholecalciferol is widely appreciated, other actions in a range of cells and tissues depend on activation of circulating 25-hydroxy vitamin D by intracrine mechanisms and paracrine actions which may be locally controlled. Of particular interest are the roles of vitamin D pe...