Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) disease is a rare autosomal dominant syndrome (1/36 000 live births) with highly penetrance that predisposes to the development of benign and malignant, highly vascularised tumours in many organs.Case reports: Two women with VHL, without family history of VHL, were admitted to Department of Endocrinology for checkups. The diagnosis was made based on genetic tests.Patient A: A 53-year-old w...

Introduction: About 1% of primary hyperparathyroidism is due to parathyroid carcinoma. The affected gland is often indistinguishable from atypical adenoma. The proper diagnosis is usually made when the disease recurs or metastases are present and then is connected with poor prognosis.Case report: A 49-year-old man, after resection of parathyroid adenoma (postoperatively with normalization PTH concentrations and hungry bone syndrome), with limbs’ fra...

Introduction: Tolvaptan is an oral vasopressin V2 receptor antagonist which offers a novel treatment for euvolaemic and hypervolaemic hyponatraemia. Here, we report our experience with Tolvaptan in elderly patients.Case 1: Seventy sex-year-old lady with background of hypothyroidism, hypertension and alcohol excess presented with acute onset of confusion. Her admission Sodium [Na+] level was 117 mmol/l and represented an acute drop f...

A 48-year-old healthy, normotensive male was referred by GP due to incidental finding of hypokalaemia of 2.5 mmol/L on routine blood testing. The patient was initially treated with oral potassium supplements with little effect. Biochemical investigations in the endocrine clinic demonstrated mild metabolic alkalosis, eunatraemia, mild hypomagnesaemia 0.6 mmol/L and hypercalcaemia of 2.84 mmol/L with hypophosphataemia of 0.53 mmol/L. PTH was high at 350 ng/L. Renin and aldostero...

Hypertension remains one of the most common diseases affecting more than 25% of the whole population. It is associated with high mortality risk due to cardiovascular complications. Usually hypertension is of idiopathic origin, however, several other diseases, including hormonal abnormalities may cause hypertension.Here, we present the frequency of primary hyperaldosteronism in a group of 310 hypertensive patients.Previously, they h...

Carney’s triad is a very rare syndrome, which comprises three tumors of different origin: gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), thoracic chondroma and extraadrenal pheochromocytoma. It is found mainly in young female patients with blood group A. Two of the tumors need to be present for the diagnosis.Here we present the case of a 58-year-old male with blood group B. In July 2004 patient underwent resection of a part of small intestine with two GISTs...

Acromegaly is a chronic disease with typical clinical signs evoked by overproduction of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like factor 1 (IGF1). It is nearly always caused by somatotroph adenoma which can be visualized by MRI scanning. Other causes of acromegaly are very rare and comprises ectopic secretion of GH or GH-RH by other neoplasms.Here, we present a case of 62-year old acromegalic woman. Acromegaly was firstly diagnosed 9 years ago. Her GH concent...

The most typical signs of Cushing’s syndrome (CS) are easy bruising, hypertension and ‘cushingoid’ phenotype with central deposits of fat tissue. Moreover, hypercortisolemia may affect also reproductive system leading to loss of libido and impotence in men and menstrual disturbances and infertility in women.However, some of the patients remains fertile, although pregnancy is uncommon and is associated with fetal morbidity and mortality in ...

The authors studied the effect of one year of therapy with rhGH on growth velocity in patients with growth hormone deficiency (GHD). We analyzed 120 patients (85 boys and 35 girls), 6–21.5 years of age (mean 14.2±3.0) treated in Department of Endocrinology and Diabetology for Children and Adolescents, Medical University of Wrocław. Patients received rhGH in a dose of 0.7IU/Kg/week. Partial GHD was diagnosed in 71 cases (52 boys and 19 girls), complete GHD was ...

Ghrelin, a 28 amino acid peptide, was recently isolated from the stomach of rat, and was identified as the endogenous ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue receptor, GHSR. Two GHSR subtypes, generated by an alternative splicing of a single gene, have been identified: the full-length type 1a receptor and truncated type 1b. The GHS-R1a is the functionally active, signal transduction form of the receptor. Ghrelin is recognized as an important regulator of growth hormone secr...