Endocrine Abstracts

A 42-year-old gentleman of Ghanaian origin presented with a 1 month history of worsening severe proximal myopathy. On presentation his symptoms had progressed to the extent that he was unable to mobilise from his bed. Prior to this illness he had been fit and well. Examination revealed severe proximal myopathy and a uniformly enlarged, smooth thyroid gland. There was no clinical evidence of hyperthyroidism.Blood tests on admission showed a serum potassiu...

A 40-year-old female presented with a 6 week history of right-sided headaches and nausea. She was found to have an Arnold-Chiari malformation and an unusual C3 syrinx on MRI brain scanning. She underwent a foramen magnum decompression and C1 laminectomy. Three weeks later, she was admitted with headaches, nausea and vomiting, and blurring of her vision on left lateral gaze. Whilst in the emergency unit, the patient had a tonic-clonic seizure.Following th...

A 31-year-old man presented with a two month history of sweating, right-sided abdominal pain and supraclavicular swelling. CT scanning showed widespread lymphadenopathy with multiple retroperitoneal lymph nodes. Biopsy of a left supraclavicular node resulted in a diagnosis of metastatic paraganglioma. Raised urinary catecholamine as well as urinary metanephrine levels further confirmed the diagnosis.A normocytic anaemia requiring repeated blood transfusi...