Endocrine Abstracts

A middle aged woman was admitted to Salisbury District Hospital after she was found to be severely hyponatraemic by her GP. She had been suffering from lightheadedness, headaches and tiredness for a few weeks before her admission but there was no obvious aetiology. Her past medical history included hypertension but she was not on diuretics or any other medication that could affect her sodium levels. Her serum sodium at the GP surgery was 123 and when she was admitted in the Ac...

Background: Menopause marks the permanent cessation of periods for a woman. It is commonly associated with cognitive impairment. Oestrogens and progestins have been known to have a profound effect on the central nervous system and can exert neuroprotective effects on the cellular level. This led to the hypothesis that administration of oestrogens, progestins or a combination of both in the form of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can have a protective or therapeutic effect ag...

A 33-year-old woman was seen in the Endocrinology Clinic in May 2023 due to abnormal thyroid function tests with normal TSH and persistently elevated free T4 and free T3. She had been under investigation for tiredness, palpitations, and weight gain. The differential diagnosis was TSH-secreting tumour or thyroid hormone resistance. Her bloods were sent to Basingstoke Hospital and assay interference by heterophilic antibodies was excluded. She underwent a thyroid ultrasound whic...

Background: Craniopharyngioma (CP) is a rare sellar or suprasellar epithelial tumour with a prevalence of approximately 2 per million and it occurs either in childhood between the ages of 5 and 14 years or in adulthood between the ages of 50 and 74 years. Histologically, CPs are divided into adamantinomatous, more prevalent in children, and papillary, more prevalent in adults. They are usually benign, but rare cases of malignant CPs have been reported. Clinical presentation is...