Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Thyroid hormone replacement is one of the most commonly prescribed and cheapest treatments for a chronic disease. There have been recent changes in community prescribing policies in many areas of the UK that have changed patient access to necessary medications.Aim: To provide a picture of thyroid hormone usage in the UK and to survey patient opinion about current community prescribing policies for levothyroxine.Methods:...

Conventional intramuscular preparations of testosterone esters are associated with wide fluctuations in serum testosterone (T) levels following administration, even when a lower dose (100 mg) is injected every 7–10 days, let alone 250 mg every 2–3 weeks. Depot Testosterone undecanoate [TU -Nebido] is a newly available option for androgen replacement. The possibility of achieving stable therapeutic serum T levels over a period of months is its principal attraction. Da...

Clinical case: 24-year-old student nurse referred to the liver unit with a 6-month history of pyrexia, cognitive dysfunction and abnormal liver function tests. ERCP was normal; CT scan suggested multiple liver deposits; histology showed both fatty infiltration and focal cholangitis. Medical history included type 1 diabetes since age 7yrs; an unusual skin rash that spontaneously remitted 4 years previously; recurrent vulval ulceration, variously ascribed to candida and/or excor...