Endocrine Abstracts

A 32-year-old woman was referred, at 12 weeks in her second pregnancy, to the antenatal diabetic clinic for control of Type 1 diabetes. HbA1c was 6.5% (4.5-6.2%DCCT).At 32 weeks gestation she was admitted with premature labour. Treatment with betamethasone resulted in hyperglycaemia. Four days later she was admitted with a suspected subarachnoid haemorrhage. Brain CT was normal. She declined lumbar puncture. Over the next 2 days she developed recurrent h...

Pre-operative localization of parathyroid adenoma using parathyroid imaging remains a controversial issue. However, with the advent of minimally invasive parathyroid surgery and the use of more sensitive radionuclide (Technetium Seastamibi and recently Technetium tetrofosmin); the belief in the usefulness of parathyroid imaging is increasing.Our objectives were a) to compare the sensitivities of three parathyroid imaging modalities (Thallium Substraction, Low Dose and High Dos...

A 20 years old primigravida 11weeks pregnant presented with increasing neck size, having noticed some neck swelling 4 years previously. There was no history of dysphagia or stridor. Apart of mild asthma she was well with no significant past medical or family history. TSH was normal at the time she was referred by the GP to the endocrine clinic. On examination she had a smooth thyroid swelling but no cervical lymphadenopathy. Further thyroid function tests confirmed a normal TS...

Metformin has gained a reputation as an effective fertility treatment in PCOS. Most publications use ovulation rate as the main outcome measure and few quote pregnancy rates. We have audited the first 39 patients with PCOS treated with Metformin in our Reproductive Unit. In this practice, as opposed to a research setting, there were often multiple factors contributing to infertility and they were usually proven resistant to other forms of treatment.In t...

Radioiodine therapy (RAI) is widely used as definitive treatment for hyperthyroidism. Of the several regimes in use, we have used a standard 555 MBq dose of RAI to treat all patients with hyperthyroidism. Treatment is considered to have failed if patients remain hyperthyroid at 12 months and a repeat 555 MBq dose is administered. We have studied 584 consecutive patients for failure rate of RAI when it is used according to this regime (mean follow-up 3 years (range 1-10)). We h...

We report the case of a 34 year old woman with recurrent hyperthyroid Grave's disease. She was initially found to be thyrotoxic in July 1996. Treatment was commenced with carbimazole, of which she received 12 months in a titration regimen. She relapsed in October 1999, six months following the delivery of her first child, and was restarted on carbimazole, remaining euthyroid on a dose of 10mg. She conceived again in May 2002 (whilst on carbimazole) and treatment was continued ...

In normal physiology, glucocorticoid receptor (GR) activation regulates cell type-dependent genes whose products influence metabolism, inflammation, cell cycle and apoptosis/cell survival pathways. Synthetic GR agonists, or glucocorticoids (GCs), are often used to treat hematologic malignancies because of GR’s ability to induce proapoptotic gene expression, inhibit nuclear factor–κB, and induce cell cycle arrest. In contrast, recent examination of GR expression ...