Endocrine Abstracts

A 36-year-old gentleman presented to his GP 2 years ago with hypertension and was commenced on valsartan. In January 2008, he was noted to have mildly deranged LFT and abdominal ultrasound scan showed mild fatty liver infiltration and bilateral renal stones. He was referred to Urology for investigation of renal stones and a CT IVU showed multiple renal calculi, a 6×5×5 cm soft tissue enhancing lesion arising from the right adrenal gland and a 7 mm calcified density w...

We have previously reported comparisons of ACROQOL, a disease-specific questionnaire for QOL in patients with acromegaly, with the non-disease-specific generic tools Psychological General Well-Being Schedule (PGWBS) and EUROQOL and disease-specific signs and symptoms score (SSS). ACROQOL comprises 22 questions (subdivided into physical and psychological classes, total score out of 110 quoted as percentage, higher scores = better QOL). SSS rates 5 features of acromegaly each ra...

The risks of over and under-replacement with glucocorticoid replacement therapy are well-known. In an attempt to minimise these risks cortisol day curves (CDC) are performed in many centres, however there is a dearth of data on the reproducibility of this assessment and the relationship between symptoms and serum cortisol levels. To address these issues, we have performed 2 cortisol day curves within 7 days in 20 patients (9 male, mean age 54 years, range 25-79, 6 primary and ...

A 49 year old man presented in 1998 with marked visual disturbance. MRI scan revealed a very large pituitary tumour with compression of the anterior optic pathways. Prolactin was markedly elevated at 259,000 milliunits per litre confirming the diagnosis of a giant prolactinoma. A trial of dopamine agonist therapy did not result in any improvement in vision and he proceeded to pituitary surgery. Vision improved and prolactin levels were suppressed by dopamine agonist therapy wi...

BACKGROUND: Previous work has demonstrated a relationship between impaired carbohydrate metabolism and low serum levels of androgens in men. Men with diabetes have lower testosterone levels, and administration of physiological doses of testosterone improves glucose tolerance in these men. Men with coronary artery disease (CAD) have lower androgen levels than men with normal coronary arteries. We studied the relationship between testosterone, glucose, hypertension and DM in a p...

Pegvisomant is a novel medical therapy for acromegaly that functions as a GH receptor antagonist. Insulin resistance is an important factor in the increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality associated with acromegaly. The aim of this study was to compare insulin sensitivity (IS) in a group of 7 patients with acromegaly (3 male, mean age 59+/-13 years, SD), treated first with a stable dose of depot octreotide (OT) (median dose 20mg four weekly, range 10-20) for at least t...

We conducted a prospective study of 5784 subjects aged 65 or over, screened and identified in primary care. The cohort comprised 2934 women, 2850 men, mean age 73.5 years (range 63.5-98.6). All had TSH measured in a sensitive assay (normal range 0.4-5.5 mU/l), as well as free T4 (normal range 9-20 pmol/l), and resting 12-lead ECG. Atrial fibrillation (AF) was present in 4.81% of the cohort. The prevalence of AF showed significant variation with serum TSH concentrations, being ...

Thyroid dysfunction is common, particularly in the elderly, and has an important impact on morbidity and mortality, especially in this age group.Aim: We have investigated associations between thyroid function, presence of atrial fibrillation and cognitive function in a large general practice-based study conducted from December 2002-November 2004. Subjects with a previous history of thyroid disease or currently taking thyroxine or anti-thyroid drugs were ...