Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Hydrocortisone therapy in adrenal insufficiency and medical management of Cushing’s syndrome requires accurate monitoring of glucocorticoid status. Currently, this necessitates admitting patients to hospital for serial measurements of serum cortisol. From previous studies in Cushing’s, the goal of medical therapy is a mean (based on five samples) serum cortisol of 150–300 nmol/l, which is known to equate to a normal cortisol production rate. Saliva...

Introduction: Patients with pituitary deficiencies suffer from impaired quality of life regardless of substitution therapy with hydrocortisone, thyroxine (T4), sex hormones or GH. Central hypothyroidism (CH) is difficult to diagnose and treat because symptoms are non-specific and TSH-levels cannot be used for assessment. There is no consensus for the fT4-goal of thyroxine-replacement in patients with CH.Aim: To determine the impact ...

Background: Metyrapone is widely used in the UK for the control of cortisol excess in Cushing’s syndrome, but its use is not standardised. There are a few reports published on metyrapone use, mostly containing small patient numbers.Method: A retrospective survey was conducted across 13 tertiary centres. Using a standardised proforma, extensive data including monitoring and safety information were collected for patients with Cushing’s syndrome o...