Endocrine Abstracts

INTRODUCTION: Hypertension with hypokalaemia suggests primaryaldosteronism, which is confirmed by high plasma aldosterone with low renin concentrations. CT and MRI scans frequently fail to detect small primary aldosteronomas, and may incorrectly identify ' incidentalomas', so adrenal vein sampling is needed.AIM: To review the clincal and biochemical results on 12 patients who had catheter sampling of adrenal and ivc aldosterone(A) and Cortisol (C)with calculation of Aldosteron...

Patient information is increasingly well provided, but little is known of patients' actual understanding of their conditions. The aim of this study was to determine the level of knowledge about thyrotoxicosis and its treatment among patients attending the endocrine clinic. Consecutive patients who had received antithyroid drugs were identified from the clinic database and asked to respond to a postal questionnaire. Ethical approval was obtained for the study.Questionnaires...

IntroductionWomen with Turner Syndrome have an increased prevalence of hearing loss. Conductive hearing loss (CHL) is thought to be caused by craniofacial abnormalities or defective mucociliary transport resulting in impaired middle ear ventilation, increased otitis media and tympanic perforations. Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) progresses with age, possibly due to premature aging. An adult population was assessed for the impact of childhood treatment...

Subcutaneous heparin is commonly used for prophylaxis of deep vein thrombosis. Heparin induced hypoaldosteronism can lead to hyperkalemia and natriuresis. These side effects are more common in elderly, renal insufficient and diabetic patients. We present a case with heparin induced hyperkalemia in a patient with diabetes.An 85 year old lady with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus of 32 years duration with peripheral neuropathy was admitted under the vas...

The purpose of this study was to measure well-being and treatment satisfaction among clinic patients with type 2 diabetes using a diabetes specific instrument as well as determine correlates of these measures. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using the Well-Being Questionnaire (1) and the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (2). Other demographic and clinical indices of age, sex, body mass index, disease duration and blood glucose levels were also recorded. Sco...

IntroductionWomen with Turner Syndrome have an increased prevalence of hearing loss. Conductive hearing loss (CHL) is thought to be caused by craniofacial abnormalities or defective mucociliary transport resulting in impaired middle ear ventilation, increased otitis media and tympanic perforations. Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) progresses with age, possibly due to premature aging. An adult population was assessed for the impact of childhood treatment...

Prenatal dexamethasone (dex) administration in rats retards foetal growth, and programmes hyperinsulinaemia and glucose intolerance in adult offspring. This can be explained in part by increased hepatic gluconeogenesis, due to up-regulated glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression, but may also involve impaired peripheral glucose disposal. In this model, we previously showed no increase in skeletal muscle GR, and have now examined GR and key metabolic genes in adipose tissue.</...

The index patient is a 40 year old male with BPES (Blepharophimosis, Ptosis, Epicanthus inversus Syndrome) associated with isolatedgrowth hormone deficiency. BPES is a rare genetic disease occurring either sporadically or as an autosomal dominant disorder. There are two phenotypes; in type 1, eyelid abnormalities are associated with ovarian failure and in type 2 eyelid abnormalitiesonly. The genes for both types have been mapped ...

The glucagon stimulation test (GST) is used as a provocative test of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPAA) but the response to this test is variable and the mechanism of action remains unclear. The GST has never been studied in diabetic patients with autonomic neuropathy (AN). We illustrate the assessment of cortisol response in two diabetic patients with AN who were suspected of having adrenocortical deficiency. Case one: A 40 year old type 1 diabetic suffers from di...

A 67 yr old lady was admitted with left ventricular failure, angina, and atrial fibrillation. She was hypokalaemic (2.5mmol/l). There was a 3 year history of hypertension and a new diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. There was a recent history of weight gain, muscle weakness, bruising and facial puffiness. On examination she appeared cushingoid. A 24 hour urine for free cortisol was 1438nmol\/24h (normal<350). A basal 0800h serum cortisol was 1061nmol/l. After low dose dexameth...