Endocrine Abstracts

A 73 year old female presented with a 5-year history of fatigue, anorexia and weight loss of 15 kg. Her primary care physician recorded a 09:00 h cortisol of 163 nmol/l. Previous medical history was one of abdominal diffuse B-cell lymphoma 9 years earlier treated with 6 cycles of R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and prednisolone) followed by CT-guided radiotherapy. Medications were transcutaneous buprenorphine 20 mg/hour, aspirin 75 mg od and omeprazole 20 mg o...

Ectopic posterior pituitary is a rare congenital pituitary anatomical defect of complex inheritance resulting in heterogeneous clinical and radiological phenotypes. Presentation is primarily in paediatric patients with growth and development effects. We present a rare adult presentation patient. A 33 year old male presented with low libido and paucity of facial hair. Previous medical history was limited to a left undescended testis. He took no regular medications, anabolics or...

An NHS Patient Safety Alert in 2016 warned “Risk of severe harm or death when desmopressin (DDAVP) is omitted or delayed in patients with cranial diabetes insipidus”. Endocrinologists added “It (DDAVP) needs to be continued in all situations with the assistance of endocrine teams”.Case report: A 63 year old male was referred with a sodium of 116 mmol/l following a re-do hip replacement 2 weeks earlier. A progressive d...

Pre-eclampsia is a life-threatening disease occurring in 4.6% of pregnancies characterised by multi-organ dysfunction. Placental dysfunction is implicated with release of factors causing systemic inflammation and endothelial dysfunction. Mild hyponatraemia (130–135 mmol/l) is regarded as physiological in normal pregnancy. Severe hyponatraemia (<125 mmol/l) is a rare life-threatening complication of pre-eclampsia. Severe hyponatraemia and hyperkalaemia has been reporte...

Primary hyperparathyroidism is a common cause of hypercalcaemia increasing in prevalence with age peaking in females at 70-90 years of age (492 cases/100,000 population) and in males above 80 years of age (264 cases/100,000 population). Immobilisation hypercalcaemia is regarded as an uncommon non-parathyroid hormone dependent cause of hypercalcaemia typically occurring in young patients with spinal cord injuries and neuromuscular disorders. It is of complex physical and molecu...

A third of people over the age of 65 and half of those over 85 fall at least once a year. Aside from the human cost, the cost to the NHS is an estimated £2 billion/year and 4 million bed days (2014 figures). Hyponatraemia in the elderly is associated with falls, fractures, morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have demonstrated decreased activity of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system with increasing age. More recent studies have suggested dysregulation of aldosteron...