Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Pituitary apoplexy is a relatively rare but important clinical syndrome which may be associated with acute headache, visual compromise and hypopituitarism. It can be the initial presentation of a previously unsuspected pituitary macroadenoma. Recognised risk factors include hypertension and the use of antiplatelet agents and/or anticoagulant therapy. It may be life-threatening, requiring emergency endocrine (e.g hydrocortisone) replacement therapy[1] and...

Background: Cushing’s disease is the most common cause of endogenous Cushing’s syndrome in adults, affecting females>males (ratio 3:1). In suspected cases, careful clinical assessment is required to ascertain a pre-test probability. This is followed by robust biochemical testing, which guides further management.One-week test protocol: Congruent biochemical tests are conducted over a one-week period in an outpatient setting. Patients attend on d...

Background: Prolactinomas are the commonest hormone-secreting pituitary adenomas. First-line treatment is dopamine agonist (DA) therapy. However, side-effects are increasingly recognised, leading to an increasing consideration of transsphenoidal surgery (TSS) and/or radiotherapy. Co-registration of 11C-methionine Positron Emission Tomography (Met-PET) imaging with Spoiled Gradient Recalled Acquisition MRI (SPGR MRI), referred to in combination as Met-PET/MRI, can aid accurate ...

Context: Surgery is the first-line treatment option for thyrotropinomas, but medical therapy with somatostatin receptor ligands (SRL) may be used as neoadjuvant treatment and to facilitate safe surgery.Objectives: To determine the extent to which neoadjuvant SRL (i) corrects clinical, laboratory and tissue hyperthyroidism in thyrotropinomas, (ii) induces tumour shrinkage in macroadenomas, and (iii) aids microadenoma detection by 11C-methionine...

A 19-year-old gentleman, with Coffin-Siris-Syndrome(CSS)(ARID1B:c.6157dup gene-mutation), was referred to our endocrinology clinic, with rapid weight-gain and recent onset of Type-2-Diabetes. He was of short stature, he had central-adiposity, facial plethora, proximal myopathy and gynaecomastia. Endocrine testing revealed ACTH:61ng/l, Cortisol:772nmol/l, Total-Testosterone:2.8nmol/l, FSH:6.3U/l, LH:2.2U/l, Prolactin:87mU/l, IGF-1:61ug/l, TSH:0.18mU/l, T4:10.3 pmol/l, HbA1C:84m...