Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The incidence and prevalence of GEP-NENs is rising worldwide. NENs represent the group off well differentiated neuroendocrine tumours (NET) and poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC). NETs can be divided into grade 1 (G1), grade 2 (G2) and grade 3 (G3) based on histological parameters. There exist several studies regarding survival data but these are mainly based on national databases.Aim: To describe the real world overall su...

Background: Inappropriately high aldosterone in patients with primary hyperaldosteronism (PHA) is due to increased aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) activity. Selective in vivo imaging of overexpressed CYP11B2 in adrenals with positron emission tomography (PET) has not yet been achieved due to close homology of enzymes involved in aldosterone and cortisol (CYP11B1) synthesis.Aim: Synthesize a fluorine-18 labelled highly selective CYP11B2 inhibitor, [18...

Case history: A previously well 45-year-old lady presented with a 3-year history of hypertension initially diagnosed at a routine health check. Her blood pressure (BP) was 170-180/90-100 mmHg.Investigations: Showed hypokalaemia (K+= 3 mmol/l; NR 3.5-5.3 mmol/l), raised aldosterone (976pmol/l; NR 100-500pmol/l) and supressed renin activity (<0.2nmol/l/h), meeting criteria for diagnosing primary aldosteronism (PA). CT adrenals showed a 2.5 cm left adre...

A 65-year-old Afro-Caribbean gentleman, with a >10-year history of hypertension, frequently recorded blood pressures of >160/80 mmHg. His serum electrolytes showed Na+ 145 mmol/l and K+ 3.2 mmol/l. MRI demonstrated 13 mm left medial-limb adrenal adenoma. His hypertension was uncontrolled on treatment with amlodipine 10 mg OD, spironolactone 50 mg OD, losartan100 mg OD and doxazosin 16 mg OD. Although his quality of life was reduced, and he dislike...

Introduction: Improvement in glycaemia is observed early after Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass surgery (RYGB) in patients with diabetes. Commonly cited mechanisms to account for these changes include the elevation of gut hormones, increase in bile acids levels, changes in the gut microbiota and calorie restriction. Calorie restriction is believed to play a role in improving hepatic insulin sensitivity and reduce hepatic glucose output early after RYGB, in the context of non-significa...

Background: Survivors with Fontan circulation suffer from chronic systemic hypoperfusion resulting in end-organ injury. Little is known about the effects of these hemodynamic perturbations on bone. We hypothesized that chronic Fontan circulation (>5 years after surgery) would be associated with bone deficits.Methods: Peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) was performed on 10 Fontan patients (seven males, 11.8±1.7 years) and 11 health...

Background: Adrenal vein sampling (AVS) remains the gold-standard for distinguishing unilateral and bilateral disease in primary aldosteronism (PA). However, it is invasive, technically demanding, and may yield inconclusive or equivocal results. 11C-Metomidate PET-CT (11C-MTO-PET-CT) is a non-invasive alternative to AVS for localising unilateral aldosterone-producing adenomas (APAs).Methods/patients: We report a retrospective analys...

Introduction: Liver is the most common site in patients with advanced small bowel neuroendocrine neoplasms (SBNEN) and distant metastases. On the contrary, lung metastases are relatively uncommon, occurring in 5–13.6% of patients. Although hepatic metastases often progress and have implications to the disease outcome, not enough data are available for lung metastases.Aim: Our aim was to assess the incidence of chest (including lung, mediastina/hilar...

Introduction: Hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia (HH) is the most common cause of severe and persistent hypoglycaemia in neonates. The treatment of diazoxide unresponsive HH involves pancreatectomy. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a protein kinase that regulates cellular proliferation. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of mTOR inhibitor Sirolimus and assess mTOR expression in the pancreas of infants with severe HH.Methods: Four infants with severe, ...

Renal stone disease is a common disorder for which the underlying causes remain largely unknown. We have investigated a hereditary renal calcification mouse model, Rcalc1, that is not associated with hypercalciuria for underlying mechanisms. Kidney RNA from 30 to 33 week-old Rcalc1 and control BALB/c and C3H female mice (n=4/group) was extracted and hybridised to Mouse Genome 430 2.0 arrays (Affymetrix). Following Robust Multichip Average normalization, pair-wise compar...