Endocrine Abstracts

OBJECTIVE Recent studies have shown the benefits of insulin sensitising agents such as Metformin in the treatment of infertility and hirsuitism in PCOS. However not all women with PCOS are insulin resistant. Within a clinic population of women referred for treatment of hirsuitism, we examined the utility of fasting insulin/glucose measurement in identifying which women were insulin resistant.DESIGN We evaluated an outpatient clinic group of 25 PCOS pati...

IntroductionWe have previously shown that patients with pituitary Cushing's have impaired quality of life vs. other pituitary tumour groups. Whether this is related to direct neural effects of excess ACTH or cortisol is uncertain. In order to address this, we compared patients who had undergone definitive treatment for pituitary vs adrenal Cushings.DesignWe assessed 14 patients with biochemically cured pituit...

IntroductionRecent studies have confirmed that IGF-I is an important determinant of future glucose homeostasis and cardiovascular risk. Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) is the principal carrier protein for IGF-I in the circulation. Therefore we tested the relationship of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 to insulin resistance in an ethnic group with a high incidence of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.Methods. In a population-based study 100 subjects of...

IntroductionInsulin-like growth factors-I (IGF-I) and -II (IGF-II) are important in regulation of metabolism and growth. We previously reported in normal weight normoglycaemic individuals that low circulating IGF-II predicts future weight gain. We subsequently investigated whether such relationships persisted in circumstances of abnormal glucose tolerance.MethodIn 224 type 2 diabetes subjects we assessed the ...

IntroductionThe metabolic syndrome is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease and glucose intolerance. We have previously shown that a low IGFBP-1 concentration coupled with a low circulating IGF-I predicts worsening glucose tolerance. In this study we further investigated relationships between the IGF-system and...

OBJECTIVE Measurement of serum testosterone level is an integral part of the assessment of men presenting to endocrine clinics. Little is known about variation of testosterone level by ethnic group. The principal determinant of testosterone bioavailability is sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) which itself is a marker for insulin sensitivity. Our aim was to examine variations in testosterone and SHBG levels across three ethnic groups in relation to ethnic differences in insul...

Introduction: Propensity to centripetal adiposity is an ethnic characteristic amongst South Asians, which may underlie the excess risk for both coronary heart disease (CHD) and diabetes in this population. Circulating levels of adipocytokines (hormones which include leptin, adiponectin, tumour necrosis factor (TNF-alpha)) and C-reactive protein (CRP) reflect the adipose tissues endocrine and metabolic activity, and are implicated in CHD.Methods: We compa...

AimsThe increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus with age in the context of ageing populations worldwide highlights the need to understand better factors that influence glucose homeostasis. Our hypothesis was that lifestyle change accompanying migration influences the relationship between pancreatic beta cell function (HOMA-B) and age.MethodsWe compared a specific migrant Gujarati community in Britain...

IntroductionThe IGF-system has also been implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. We report the effects of total energy intake on the IGF-system in two populations with a markedly different dietary macronutrient intake and cardiovascular event rate.MethodDietary macronutrient intake was measured in a specific Gujarati migrant community in Sandwell UK (n=205) compared with people ...

Objective: Three nonsynonomous SNPs, Arg16Gly, Gln27Glu and Thr164Ile, in the coding region of the ADRB2 gene affect either receptor affinity or trafficking. Their distribution has been shown to differ significantly in hypertension. We investigated the association of these loci with hypertension in the Silesian Hypertension Study.Methods: Following local ethics approval, 274 unrelated Polish subjects consisting of 146 hypertensives and 128 normotensives ...