Endocrine Abstracts

Improved therapies for pancreatic and pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), which may occur in Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1 (MEN1), are needed. We assessed the effects of pasireotide, a somatostatin analogue with high affinity for somatostatin receptors (SSTRs) −1, −2, −3 and −5, in a mouse model of MEN1. Men1+/− mice treated from 12 months of age with 40 μg/g pasireotide (n=71), or phosphate-buffered sal...

Performing water deprivation test (WDT) and prolonged water deprivation test (PWDT) is some of the roles undertaken by endocrine nurse in specialist endocrine units. These tests need to be done in a safe and control environment.Objectives: To provide safe information to patients to avoid fluids overload when they arrive for the tests. Can the specialist endocrine nurse make clinical decision to terminate the test base on clinical evidence and at what poi...

Non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFA) are associated with significant morbidity. Published data on the quality of life (QoL) of NFA patients are scarce and conflicting: some studies indicate a reduced QoL in patients with adequately treated NFAs while others demonstrate that subjective health-related QoL is not compromised to any major extent compared to the general population. Most published studies indicate specific subgroups of patients which are particularly affected, w...

We present the case of a 51-year-old woman who attends the NET service at the Oxford University Hospitals Trust with multiple known secretory paragangliomas (predominantly 3-methoxythyramine), including a carotid body tumour and, most recently, an intrapericardial paraganglioma. She is SDHC mutation positive. Multiple surgical resections of paragangliomas, at sites other than the cardiac lesion, had previously been undertaken. Due to disease progression and symptomati...

Craniopharyngiomas are tumours which grow in the region of the sella, with adamantinomatous (ACP) and papillary (PCP) subtypes. While usually ‘benign’, They can have devastating long term sequelae, both from the mass effects of the tumour itself on the visual, pituitary or hypothalamic pathways, but also from the neurosurgical challenge to achieve tumour control with preservation of the surrounding pituitary and hypothalamic pathways. To date there is no satisfactory...

Case: A 22 year-old female student presented with a history of recurrent pancreatitis since 2007. The most common causes of pancreatitis, including drugs, gallstones, corticosteroids, excess alcohol and hypertriglyceridaemia were excluded. She was noted to have elevated serum calcium, which was considered to be the cause of her pancreatitis, with a detectable serum PTH level. An initial diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism was made. However, two neck explorations failed to...

Objective: (1) To review normative data for catecholamines using our cohort of hyperaldosteronism patients undergoing adrenal vein sampling. This adds to the previously published data of normative values in a cohort of patients with cortisol-producing adenoma. (2) To demonstrate the usefulness of the noradrenaline to adrenaline ratio in the interpretation of adrenal venous sampling results.Design: 38 patients underwent successful, bilateral adrenal venou...

Background: Abnormal microRNAs (miRNAs) expression profiles have been recently associated with sporadic pituitary adenomas, suggesting that miRNAs can contribute to tumor formation. miRNAs are small noncoding RNAs which inhibit post-transcriptional expression of target mRNAs by binding to complementary sequences usually located in the 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR). However, the substantial lack of knowledge about miRNAs’ targets hinder full understanding of t...

Introduction: Adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a regulator of cellular and systemic energy homeostasis. Many of the changes seen in glucocorticoid excess correspond to the metabolic steps regulated by AMPK. In the hypothalamus and adipose tissues, glucocorticoids and cannabiniods share the same tissue specific effects on AMPK activity. Cannabinoids have central orexigenic and peripheral metabolic effects via the cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1). The ...

Aim: To analyse the epidemiology and presentation of pituitary tumours in Uzbekistan.Materials and methods: Over a period of 1.5 years, we studied 53 consecutive patients with tumours in the sellar and suprasellar region (mean age 41.5 years) in terms of neurological and ophthalmological status, MRI imaging and detailed neuroendocrine functional assessment. A detailed examination of the sellar area by means of computer and magnetic resonance tomography w...