Endocrine Abstracts

Bisphosphonates are powerful inhibitors of bone resorption and have become blockbuster drugs in the treatment of metabolic bone diseases. Enormous progress has been made over the last few years in understanding exactly how bisphosphonate drugs act at the molecular level. After targeting bone and selective internalisation by osteoclasts, nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates potently inhibit FPP synthase. Inhibition of this enzyme disrupts the flux through the mevalonate pathway,...

IntroductionThe prognosis in head and neck cancer has remained unchanged over the last 20 years (overall 5 year survival 50-60 percent), and is adversely affected by tumour angiogenesis. The effects of the anti-proliferative and anti-angiogenic peptide somatostatin (SST) are mediated through a family 5 receptors (SSTRs 1-5), whilst the angiogenic cytokine vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) acts predominantly via 2 receptors: FLK and FLT. The objective of this study ...

Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) is a well reported cause of hypopituitarism but the precise incidence is controversial. We aimed to prospectively determine the incidence of acute and long term hypopituitarism in SAH.We prospectively recruited 100 patients (61% female, median age 53 (range 16–82)) with non-traumatic aneurysmal SAH. Each patient had plasma sodium, urea, osmolality, glucose, and 0900 h cortisol (PC) measured on days 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10...

Measurement of plasma cortisol by immunoassay after ACTH1–24 stimulation is used to assess the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) has greater specificity and equilibrium dialysis allows measurement of free plasma cortisol. We investigated whether measuring cortisol by LC–MS/MS improves the sensitivity of ACTH1–24 stimulation testing in pituitary patients. ...