Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Childhood growth monitoring aims to identify growth failure and detect underlying pathology. According to UK guidance, height <-2.7 standard deviation score (SDS) (<0.4th percentile) is used as the referral threshold. Additional referral criteria include height deficit (HSDS-target height SDS) <-2.0 and height velocity (HV) SDS <-1.3. Lack of routine HV and mid-parental height calculation, combined with stricter cut-offs compared to other European c...

Background: GH resistance or primary IGF1 deficiency (PIGFD) presents with growth failure, low serum IGF1 and normal/elevated serum GH. PIGFD comprises a spectrum of phenotypic and biochemical abnormalities for which genetic GH–IGF1 axis defects may be causative.Objective: Genotyping of PIGFD patients referred for sequencing of candidate genes.Methods: From 2008 to 2013, 62 patients (42 males and 20 females), median age 6.9 ye...

Background: GH insensitivity (GHI) presents with growth failure, IGF-1 deficiency and normal/elevated GH (basal >5 μg/l and/or peak >10 μg/l). GHI encompasses a spectrum of clinical and biochemical abnormalities. Associations between phenotypic characteristics and genetic defects remain obscure.Objective: Identify phenotypic predictors of underlying genetic defects in GHI.Methods: In total of 102 children (62M) me...

Background: In children, Cushing’s disease (CD) presents with a combination of weight gain and slowed linear growth. First-line pituitary surgery is the treatment of choice for most patients. In paediatric patients, the transsphenoidal surgical success rate is 60%–98% when performed by an expert pituitary surgeon. There is a need for additional pharmacological interventions to control hypercortisolaemia, which are currently limited, in children and adolescents. In ph...

Background: Endogenous Cushing’s syndrome (CS) in children remains a challenge to diagnose and exclude. 24-h urinary free cortisol (UFC) measurements are a convenient, non-invasive test for paediatric patients.Objective: To assess the screening accuracy of 24-h UFC measurements in paediatric patients referred to our centre for evaluation of possible CS.Methods: A retrospective review of children referred to our centre between ...

Selective transsphenoidal adenomectomy remains the accepted first line treatment for Cushing’s disease (CD), until recently by microscopic (sublabial) transsphenoidal pituitary surgery. Endonasal transsphenoidal endoscopic surgery is emerging as a novel, less invasive treatment for pituitary adenomas with lower postoperative complications and morbidity. The safety of endoscopic surgery has been extensively reviewed in adult patients and is now considered best practice for...

Aims: We investigate the influence of GIP on ghrelin secretion in normal glucose tolerant individuals with the use of the firstly applied correlation network analysis on human plasma metabolome data.Methods: To address this issue, we employed a GIP-infusion test and euglycemic- and hyperglycemic glucose clamp experiments combined with infusion of GIP or placebo in a cross-over manner in non diabetic obese male subjects (n=14). Moreover, we firstly...

The diabetic epidemic is increasing worldwide. The suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) provides a link between cytokine action and their negative consequences on insulin signaling. This potential influence on the development of T2DM makes the gene a potential candidate gene for type 2 diabetes.We investigated the one haplotype tagging single nucleotide polymorphism (htSNP) rs4969168 to examine the impact on T2DM in two independent study population...

Objectives: Premature estrogen deficiency and menopause are associated with increases in body weight and fat mass. Ovariectomized (OVX) mice also show reduced locomotor activity. Because glucose-dependent-insulinotropic-polypeptide (GIP) is known to play an important role both in fat metabolism and locomotor activity, we hypothesized that effects of estrogen on the regulation of body weight, fat mass and spontaneous physical activity could be mediated in part by GIP signaling....

Objective: Adiposity, insulin resistance, and hyperandrogenism are features of the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) secreted from adipose and liver tissue has been linked to insulin resistance. We here address the impact of RBP4 on insulin resistance in PCOS and its usability to identify women with metabolic syndrome or impaired glucose metabolism (IGT or diabetes).Design: RBP4 was determined in plasma of 115 PCOS...