Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Here we present our experience of managing patients with orbital well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumour (NET) metastases.Methods: Six patients were identified from the hospital NET database: four male; two female.Results: Median age at diagnosis of primary NET: 69.5 years (range: 40-74 years). Three patients were alive at time of data capture. Of those who passed away: mean survival from diagnosis of primary NET = ...

Carcinoid syndrome occurs in 20% patients, presenting with flushing, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and wheeze and can be challenging to manage. The standard of care for carcinoid syndrome is somatostatin analogues (SSAs) with add-on Creon, codeine and loperamide therapy. Nonetheless, half of patients experience debilitating diarrhoea. Telotristat-ethyl is a peripheral tryptophan-hydroxylase inhibitor approved for treatment of diarrhoea, supported by Phase 3 clinical trials but la...

Purpose: Neuroendocrine neoplasms are known to have heterogeneous biological behavior. G3 neuroendocrine tumours (NET G3) are characterized by well-differentiated morphology and Ki67>20%. The prognosis of this disease is understood to be intermediate between NET G2 and neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC). Clinical management of NET G3 is challenging due to limited data to inform treatment strategies.Methods: We describe clinical characteristics, treatment, an...

Hyponatraemia is associated with an increased morbidity and mortality. Despite having a hyponatraemia algorithm (pdf format) on our hospital intranet, it was rarely accessed and a wide variation in care was noticed. A novel digital hyponatraemia diagnostic toolkit (hyponatraemia.wordpress.com) for Foundation doctors (FDs) was introduced to assess our aims if it: A) increases the awareness of FDs to start investigating when serum Sodium is <130 mmol/l B) increases FD...

Context: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a complex endocrine disease that affects women of reproductive age and characterised by biochemical and clinical androgen excess.Aim: To review the available literature on the effectiveness of the various pharmacological interventions on androgen hormones in women with PCOS.Data source: We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, Cochrane library and the Web of Science in April 2020 and...

Context: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a heterogeneous condition affecting women of reproductive age. It is associated with dyslipidaemia and elevated plasma C-reactive protein (CRP), which increase the risks of cardiovascular disease (CVD).Objective: To review the existing evidence on the effects of different pharmacological interventions on lipid profiles of women with PCOS.Data sources: We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus,...

Background: Childhood obesity is the single most pressing public health emergency of the 21st century. The prevalence has increased at alarming rates and globally over 41 million children under 5 years of age are classified as overweight/obese. Overweight and obese children are likely to stay obese as adults and develop multi-morbidities including type 2 diabetes, cancer, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and cardiovascular disease at an earlier age. The ava...

Introduction: High doses/frequency of somatostatin analogues (SSA) are often used to control refractory functional symptoms and/or tumour progression in patients treated with standard doses of SSAs, but there is limited evidence for the efficacy of this strategy.Methods: Retrospective analysis of 47 NET patients on lanreotide Autogel 120 mg every 3 weeks (as monotherapy). Progression-free survival (PFS) and clinical outcomes were assessed. A 30% change i...

Introduction: Escalated doses of octreotide LAR are commonly used to control functional symptoms and/or tumour growth, but there is limited evidence regarding the efficacy of this approach.Methods: Retrospective analysis of 69 NET patients treated with octreotide LAR 30 mg every 3 weeks (as monotherapy). Progression-free survival (PFS) and clinical outcomes were assessed. A 30% change in symptomatology and biomarker levels was considered significant....

Objectives: Current provocative tests for GH deficiency (GHD) are neither 100% sensitive nor specific. GH neurosecretory dysfunction (NSD) refers to the presence of growth failure, normal stimulated GH responses, but impaired spontaneous GH secretion. We describe our experience in managing GHNSD over 7 years.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed a cohort of 106 children admitted for 12-h overnight GH profiles (with 20-min sampling) between 2010 and 2016. ...