Endocrine Abstracts

This case highlights the importance of investigating for secondary causes of hypertension especially in young people. The patient was referred to exclude Conn’s disease, this case outlines the limitations one may face when interpreting the results of subsequent tests. Miss K was 24 years old when she was initially admitted under the Nephrologists with headache, palpitations and significant hypertension with systolic blood pressure (BP) of 275.Her ec...

A 29-year-old woman was admitted at 33 weeks gestation with pre-eclampsia (BP 145/107 mmHg, 3+ proteinuria and significant oedema). On admission her Na was 133 mmol/l and urinary Na 49 mmol/day (ref range 130–260). Twenty-four hours urine protein was 4.43 g/day. Foetal assessment revealed intra uterine growth retardation. She was started on labetolol and the dose titrated upwards to control her blood pressure.Her serum sodium level gradually fell re...

The frequent use of brain and head MRI/CT has lead to an increase in the number of incidental pituitary lesions reported, so called pituitary ‘incidentalomas’. Such lesions require endocrine evaluation of pituitary function and radiological follow up. We performed a retrospective study to examine the source of these referrals, size of the incidentalomas, frequency of pituitary dysfunction and changes during follow-up. We performed a search of the departmental endocri...

Vitamin D is not only essential for maternal health but insufficient levels during pregnancy and breast feeding can lead to infantile rickets or osteomalacia in their offspring. NICE recommends that vitamin D supplements should only be offered to pregnant women with dark skin, those who usually cover their skin, vegans and women between the ages of 19–24. Although it is widely known that these women are at high risk of vitamin D deficiency, the incidence of vitamin D insu...