Endocrine Abstracts

Of the many neuropeptide hormones that are secreted by the placenta our attention focussed some years ago on the tachykinin, neurokinin B (NKB) as the blood concentration of this decapeptide was found to be raised in pre-eclampsia and nearly all of the life threatening symptoms seen in this disease appeared to be through progressive activation of the three neurokinin receptors. Interestingly only a limited number of antisera raised against the synthetic 10mer (the form found i...

A 51 year old woman presented with severe Cushing’s syndrome. In addition to a typically Cushingoid appearance she demonstrated increased cutaneous pigmentation in her face and upper chest. Biochemical investigation confirmed elevated serum cortisol levels with loss of circadian variation, and failure to suppress with low dose dexamethasone (0.5 mg 6 hourly for 48 hours). Serum ACTH levels were undetectable. Cross-sectional imaging revealed bilateral macronodular adrenal ...