Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Pituitary apoplexy (PA) remains a rare endocrine diagnosis. Recent UK guidelines have emphasised the lack of evidence in the management of this condition. We present our experience of 23 current cases.In classical acute PA, headache is the commonest presenting symptom. We found that a significant proportion (36%) of patients presented with subacute pituitary tumour apoplexy (SPA) – a term used to describe intra-adenomatous pituitary ha...

Pituitary apoplexy whether due to haemorrhage or infarction remains a rare endocrine diagnosis. Recent UK guidelines have emphasised the lack of published evidence in the management of this condition. We present our experience of 12 current cases (nine males, three females).Eleven cases were managed conservatively (91.6%), one patient required urgent pituitary surgery. None of the above cases required pituitary radiotherapy.Present...

61 patients (104 invited participants), within 10 years of active treatment for acromegaly, from five hospitals in the South West Peninsula (UK) (one neurosurgical centre) were interviewed to explore the experience of living with acromegaly, access to information, support and their ability to make decisions about their care. Semi-structured interviews by an independent consultant (60–120 min each) included 34 males and 27 females; 25–85 years old; 52 (85%) patients h...

Background: Botulinum neurotoxin inhibits muscle function by interfering with neurotransmitter release from secretory vesicles. The mechanism underlying this effect involves cleavage of SNARE proteins which are required for vesicle docking at the plasma membrane. The ability of botulinum neurotoxin serotypes to cleave SNARE proteins and inhibit secretion is being exploited for therapeutic purposes by Syntaxin Ltd with their ‘targeted secretion inhibitor technology’ (...