Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: To audit the benefits of MIBG and familial screening in patients with a phaeochromocytoma or paraganglionoma.Results: 77 patients (male:female 34:43) have been seen within our hospitals since 1985. Further information has been located on 75. Patients had a median age of 44.3 years (range 19.4–81.2) and a median follow up of 12.0 months postoperatively (range 0–12 yrs). The adenoma was unilateral in 65 cases (86%, left 25, right 40) a...

Somatotroph adenomas causing acromegaly are histologically classified into densely and sparsely granulated subtypes and an intermediate, mixed type. Although the different subtypes are not currently taken into account when making decisions about the management of acromegaly, there is growing evidence that the subtypes represent clinically different entities.In a cohort (n=52) of somatostatin-naïve patients with acromegaly, sparsely granulat...

Background: Data on the relationship between the hormonal response to somatostatin analogues and morphological subtype of somatotroph adenomas are sparse. We have previously shown that nadir GH <1.75 μg/l on the octreotide suppression test (OST) has positive and negative predictive value 94 and 100%, respectively in predicting achievement of ‘safe’ GH levels following treatment with octreotide LAR (Karavitaki et al. 2005).Aim: T...

Background: Non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFAs) are slow growing tumours with reported 5-year recurrence rates following resection up to 51%. The time point that it is safe to stop surveillance imaging is not clearly defined.Aim: To clarify the time spectrum of recurrence in patients with NFAs offered solely surgery as primary treatment and to estimate the safe time to stop surveillance pituitary imaging.Methods: Case-note an...