Endocrine Abstracts

BackgroundAdrenal crisis (AC) is a life threatening medical situation caused by an absolute or relative cortisol deficiency. A biological predisposition may be of importance, because some patients never experience an AC, whereas others are admitted repeatedly to the hospital for an AC. Differences in cortisol pharmacokinetics (PK) and/or pharmacodynamics (PD) may underlie this vulnerability.ObjectiveTo study ...

Rhythms and change are fundamental properties of all living things, having evolved to allow adaptation to life on earth. Rhythmicity can be observed both in behaviour and internal biology of all mammals including humans. Hormonal secretion patterns that occur at circadian and or ultradian frequencies occur commonly in the endocrine system but for practical and pragmatic reasons clinicians tend to sample and attempt to interpret single time point measures. These results can oft...

Background: Patients with secondary adrenal insufficiency show increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Higher doses of glucocorticoid replacement are related to an unfavourable metabolic profile. In the absence of randomized controlled trials assessing the effect of hydrocortisone dose on haemodynamics and blood pressure regulation, we determined effects of a higher vs a lower glucocorticoid replacement dose on blood pressure, the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) ...