Endocrine Abstracts

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) has been a subject of controversy for more than a decade being called ‘a miracle hormone’, the ‘elixir of life’ and ‘an anti-aging supplement’. However, recent literature has proven mild to moderate benefit in selected group of patients. Data is mostly limited to primary adrenal failure patients with adequate glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid replacement and in hypopituitarism from variable aetiology associated wit...

Background: Tertiary adrenal insufficiency (TAI) is a complication of long-term exogenous steroid use which results in suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The short synacthen test (SST) is used to assess HPA axis function and recovery during glucocorticoid weaning. This study examined the effect of steroid preparation, dosage and therapy duration on HPA axis suppression.Method: A retrospective analysis of 950 SSTs performed betw...

Background: Phaeochromocytoma and paraganglioma (PPGL) are highly heritable, with 30-40% due to a germline pathogenic variant. An additional 40% of tumours will harbour a somatic variant. Understanding the variant status of a tumour enables molecular classification. Liquid biopsy offers a novel approach to non-invasive diagnostics by harnessing the ability to detect small amounts of circulating-free DNA (cfDNA) and performing genomic sequencing. There are few ...