Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Despite extensive research into IQ scores in congenital hypothyroidism (CH) during childhood there is little information on adult outcome in terms of pragmatic measures such as educational achievement, employment, residency and relationships.Patients and methods: We present the results of a questionnaire-based study examining these outcome measures in Scottish adults with permanent CH born between 1979 and 1991. The unaffected siblings of o...

There is limited evidence on the effect of potassium (K+) supplementation on endothelial function. Three studies suggest a beneficial effect in healthy volunteers and mild hypertensives. However potassium increases aldosterone due to a direct effect on the adrenal gland and there is evidence that aldosterone excess is detrimental to cardiovascular health. We therefore aimed to determine the effect of potassium supplementation on endothelial function in patients with >10% c...

Background: Phaeochromocytomas (PC) are rare tumours of chromaffin cells which may present with relatively common and non-specific symptomatology. The optimal biochemical investigation to confirm or refute the diagnosis remains unclear; some centres use fractionated plasma metanephrines, which are very sensitive but lack specificity, while others use conventional measurements of urinary metanephrines, which may be affected by concurrent drug administration and are less sensiti...