Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Hypoglycaemia is considered a medical emergency and is treated as such. However, our experience as junior doctors has shown us that hyperglycaemia, despite being equally damaging to patients’ long term prognosis, can often be left to ‘run high’. This could be due to a number of factors, surrounding how often blood sugars (BM) are checked and how they are managed. We audited three standards set out in local guidelines for BM monitoring in diabetic pat...

Aims: To assess the diagnosis and management of patients with thyrotoxicosis in a district general hospital comparing with American Thyroid Association (ATA) recommendations.Methods: Retrospective study, electronic case notes of patients referred to the endocrine clinic between May 2009 and April 2011 (n=148) were reviewed. A pro-forma was designed collecting details of demographics, investigations, diagnosis and treatments received.<p class...

Introduction: We previously reported the novel finding that leptin, and several other fat-derived hormones (adipokines), is expressed and regulated in rat hypothalamus (1). Subsequently leptin (ob) mRNA was found in human, sheep and pig brain, but was surprisingly undetectable in mouse brain. In the present experiments we used a mouse hypothalamic neuronal cell line to investigate possible inhibitory mechanisms that may prevent mouse neurons from expressing ob mRNA. These incl...

Objective: The terminology used to describe abnormalities of sex determination and sex differentiation was revised in 2006. It was anticipated that new terms, such as “disorder of sex development” (DSD), would improve communication between health professionals, aid parental understanding and be acceptable to affected individuals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the new terminology has been an improvement compared to previous nomenclature.<p clas...

Primary hyperaldosteronism usually results from an aldosterone-secreting adenoma of the adrenal cortex (Conn’s adenoma) or bilateral adrenal hyperplasia. Identification of the anatomical adrenal lesion causing hyperaldosteronism typically involves CT or MR scanning, with lateralisation of aldosterone production confirmed by adrenal vein sampling (AVS). The latter is a technically difficult and invasive procedure, but current non-invasive alternatives (e.g. radiolabelled i...

Introduction: Pituitary tumors account for 15% of all intracranial neoplasms and could remain asymptomatic for a significant period. We conducted a retrospective analysis to assess pattern of referrals and management of non-functioning pituitary adenomas at our tertiary referral centre.Methods: Data was collected on referrals for NFA received at our university hospital from 2005 to 2008. Medical records, radiology reports and endocrine department data we...

Introduction: The hypothalamic kiss1/kisspeptin system is pivotal in controlling fertility. However, kiss1 transcripts were also quantified in rat fat, where expression was regulated by oestradiol (Brown et al. 2008) and by dihydrotestosterone (DHT; Brown et al. 2009). In human fat, microarray analysis revealed abnormal, multiple gene expression in obese PCOS patients (Corton et al. 2007). In the present experiments we used a rat model (Manne...

The epidemic-like increase in obesity in young people is paralleled by a rise in related diseases such as PCOS, especially in pubertal girls. Kisspeptins, encoded by the KiSS1 gene, are firmly linked with the normal control of the reproductive system and loss-of-function mutations are associated with absence of puberty. Although KiSS1 is predominantly expressed in the hypothalamus (HYP), we detected KiSS1 mRNA in rat pituitary (PIT) and adipose tissue (FAT...

Fat-derived adipokine genes that modulate metabolic and inflammatory responses, such as resistin (rstn) and fasting-induced adipose factor (fiaf), are also expressed in mouse brain and pituitary gland. We, and others, reported that central fiaf and rstn mRNA levels were increased following a brain injury-induced inflammatory response, and central injection of resistin reduced food intake and increased hepatic glucose production. Since LPS-induced en...

Kisspeptins, peptide products of the KiSS-1 gene, are pleiotropic hormones best recognized as novel regulators of puberty onset and the reproductive system. Thus, the hypothalamus expresses both KiSS-1 and its receptor, GPR54. Hypothalamic KiSS-1 is attenuated by food restriction (72 h fast),and this provides a plausible link between negative energy balance and the disruption of reproductive function. Hypothalamic KiSS-1 mRNA levels are also reduced...