Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) has been reported as a potent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, independent of cholesterol levels. Endothelial dysfunction, which is the earliest manifestation of atherosclerosis, may account for some of this cardiovascular risk. It has never been studied in a randomised controlled manner whether L-thyroxine therapy improves endothelial function.Methods: 100 patients with SCH (mean TSH of 6.6 mIU/L and n...

Objective: To assess perceived health status in people with sub-clinical hypothyroidism (SCH) who may have physical and psychological symptoms of hypothyroidism, which could affect their health perceptions.Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted involving 71 adults with SCH and no other chronic disease, age range 18 - 64 years. Patients completed the eight scales of the Short Form 36 Health Survey questionnaire version 2 (SF-36v2), a widely used t...

Objective: To assess quality of life (QoL) in people on therapy for hypothyroidism (T4 group) and to compare it with people with untreated sub-clinical hypothyroidism (SCH group).Method: A newly designed and validated tool, the 18-item ThyDQoL, measuring hypothyroid-specific QoL was completed in a cross sectional survey of the T4 group [n=103, mean age (SD) 55 (14.2) years, 17.5% males], which was similar in age and sex to the SCH group [n=100, mean age ...

Introduction:The genetics of most cases of familial phaechromocytomas is unknown.Up to 50%of paragangliomas arefamilial and increased susceptibility is seen in SDHD and SDHC mutations.We report a family with a mutation in the SDHB gene .Case report: The index case, a 22 year old male was treated at the age of 10 years with extra adrenal phaeochromocytoma. Recently, he was found to have ...

Objective: To evaluate the psychometric properties of two new condition-specific questionnaires: (1) the 18-item ThyDQoL, an individualised patient-centred measure of perceived impact of hypothyroidism on QoL, and (2) the 15-item ThySC symptom checklist in which patients provide 'bother' ratings for common hypothyroid symptoms.Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 110 adults with clinical or subclinical hypothyroidism [mean age: 55.1 plus/m...

An 18-year old male presented with galactorrhoaea and obesity. PRL measured 16,630 mU/l, FSH 6.0 U/l, LH 5.0 U/l, testosterone 8.6 nmol/l, SHBG 15.0 nmol/l, IGF-1 22.0 nmol/l and TSH 1.39 mU/l. Several 24-hour urinary free cortisol estimations excluded hypercortisolism. Short synacthen test confirmed an intact HPA axis. Visual fields were full. Pituitary-MRI revealed a large adenoma extending into the right cavernous sinus without suprasellar extension. PRL started declining u...

The foetus of a mother with previous or current Graves disease is at risk of developing thyrotoxicosis. The mother can act as a bioassay to diagnose foetal thyrotoxicosis. We describe the difficulties in managing foetal thyrotoxicosis in a mother who could not act as a bioassay because of previous Graves disease treated by total thyroidectomy.A 35year old woman fell pregnant 3 months after a total thyroidectomy for relapsed Graves disease and concomitant...

We conducted a retrospective notes analysis to determine the incidence, prevalence and predictive factors of idiopathic postprandial hypoglycaemia (IPH) in a population of 230 000 served by our Hospital.Using the Biochemistry Database all patients who had a 5-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) from 1995 to 2001 were identified, and their notes were reviewed. Demographic, clinical and biochemical data were recorded for each patient. The latter includ...

In this study we explore and integrate a pathway for loss of functional beta cell mass in diabetes. Inflammatory cytokines induce human islet dysfunction, elevate expression of 12-lipoxygenase, increase cellular reactive species and induce NADPH oxidase. These pathways are elevated in islets from diabetic donors.NADPH oxidase-1 (NOX-1) is significantly induced in either human donor islets, primary mouse islets or homogeneous beta cell lines following sti...

Some people with obesity have hormonal, metabolic and circulatory changes that constitute the metabolic syndrome that resemble characteristics of patients with Cushing's syndrome. A link between the two conditions, possibly genetic, has therefore been suspected, and the glucocorticoid receptor gene (GRL, 5q31-q32) has been one of the candidate genes.The single nucleotide polymorphism N363S is an ATT to GTT missense alteration within exon 2 of G...