Endocrine Abstracts

Cranial diabetes mellitus is not usually associated with microprolactinomas. We report a 29 year old lady who presented 8 months after the birth of her only child with a 4 month history of polyurea and polydipsia. She had also noticed galactorrhoea and decreased libido although she had never breastfed the child and had not resumed normal menstrual function. The birth of her child was normal and uncomplicated although she admitted to being stressed recently since the baby was h...

ObjectiveIt is controversial whether subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) always reflects mild thyroid failure and if treatment is beneficial. The arguments in favour of treatment are prevention of progression, reducing cholesterol levels and improving symptoms. The consequence of SCH on body weight and its response to treatment has never been studied in a systematic manner.MethodsUnselected population-based stud...

Background: It is controversial whether symptoms of hypothyroidism and quality of life (QoL) in people with subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) are impaired and whether treatment with L-thyroxine alleviates these. Previous studies of L-Thyroxine therapy have shown conflicting results. No previous study has simultaneously 1investigated effects of treatment on quality of life (QoL), health status, symptoms and treatment satisfaction.Methods: One hundred patie...

Background: Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) has been reported as a potent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, independent of cholesterol levels. Endothelial dysfunction, which is the earliest manifestation of atherosclerosis, may account for some of this cardiovascular risk. It has never been studied in a randomised controlled manner whether L-thyroxine therapy improves endothelial function.Methods: 100 patients with SCH (mean TSH of 6.6 mIU/L and n...

Objective: To assess perceived health status in people with sub-clinical hypothyroidism (SCH) who may have physical and psychological symptoms of hypothyroidism, which could affect their health perceptions.Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted involving 71 adults with SCH and no other chronic disease, age range 18 - 64 years. Patients completed the eight scales of the Short Form 36 Health Survey questionnaire version 2 (SF-36v2), a widely used t...

Objective: To assess quality of life (QoL) in people on therapy for hypothyroidism (T4 group) and to compare it with people with untreated sub-clinical hypothyroidism (SCH group).Method: A newly designed and validated tool, the 18-item ThyDQoL, measuring hypothyroid-specific QoL was completed in a cross sectional survey of the T4 group [n=103, mean age (SD) 55 (14.2) years, 17.5% males], which was similar in age and sex to the SCH group [n=100, mean age ...

Introduction:The genetics of most cases of familial phaechromocytomas is unknown.Up to 50%of paragangliomas arefamilial and increased susceptibility is seen in SDHD and SDHC mutations.We report a family with a mutation in the SDHB gene .Case report: The index case, a 22 year old male was treated at the age of 10 years with extra adrenal phaeochromocytoma. Recently, he was found to have ...

Background: Neutropenia due to anti-thyroid drug (ATD) therapy in Graves’ disease is rare but is well recognised. However, the effect of hyperthyroidism, prior to and after ATD therapy, on absolute neutrophil counts in patients with Graves’ disease is unclear.Methods: We noted neutrophil levels in consecutive patients with newly diagnosed Graves’ thyrotoxicosis in 2010–2013. We further noted neutrophil levels once patients had been tr...

Hypercalcaemia is a commonly encountered problem. Though primary hyperparathyroidism and malignancy account for greater than 90% of cases other rare causes need to be considered. We present an unusual but significant cause of hypercalcaemia.Of 87-year-old gentleman presented with acute abdominal pain and a severe hypercalcaemia with corrected serum calcium of 4.36 mmol/l (2.1–2.6). Significant dehydration was associated with acute renal failure (Tab...

Thyroid function changes with advancing age, however there is little good quality data available that characterises the extent of thyroid disease in the elderly, or the parameters of normal thyroid function in the ‘oldest old’. Reference ranges for serum TSH and free thyroid hormones based on unselected younger adults are currently applied uniformly to older individuals.The Newcastle 85+ study has collected health and lifestyle information from...