Endocrine Abstracts

A 75-year-old man presented to Emergency department with fever and 3 episodes of tonic clonic seizures. He had recent ear infection. He was intubated and ventilated and taken to ICU.He had CT head which was normal. Lumbar puncture results were consistent with Pneumococcal meningitis. He was treated with appropriate antibiotics.During recovery he had persistent hyponatremia. He was reviewed by Endocrine team and his TFT, cortisol an...

Intratumoural hypoxia is associated with aggressive and metastatic phenotypes with poor prognosis. The transcription factor HIF-1α is a key regulator of hypoxia-mediated gene expression that is documented to promote tumour growth and metastasis in a wide range of cancers. However its role in the development of thyroid carcinomas is relatively unknown. We have previously shown that HIF-1α is highly active in a range of thyroid cancer cell lines with highest activity o...

Copeptin is a stable AVP marker and stoichiometrically released with AVP. It closely reflects changes in water balance. Its stimulation in severe stress has recently has been suggested for the early diagnosis of myocardial infarction but clear definition of the physiological variability is necessary. Here, we studied the pulsatile and circadian variation in healthy individuals and compared copeptin to cortisol rhythms.Copeptin levels were sampled every 2...

Background: Intratumoural hypoxia is associated with an aggressive and metastatic phenotype and poor prognosis. The transcription factor Hypoxia-inducible Factor-1α (HIF-1α) is a key regulator of hypoxia, inducing the expression of genes which promote tumour cell survival, such as carbonic-anhydrase IX (CA-IX) playing a role in cell adhesion, pH regulation and dedifferentiation of the tumours. Here we investigated whether there is cross talk between the HIF-1 and Wnt...

Aggressive angiomyxoma (AA) is a rare mesenchymal tumor which is more common in females, occurring predominantly in the pelvi-perineal region. It tends to be locally aggressive with high recurrence after primary excision. The majority of these tumors are positive for oestrogen and progesterone receptors. Hence hormonal manipulation provides the possibility of effective treatment.Since 2005, we have been treating two female patients with AA medically (see...

Salivary cortisol (SalC) potentially has advantages over serum cortisol (SerC) as it is easier to collect and possibly reflects unbound (free) cortisol. SalC levels are approximately 10 times lower than SerC and require high measurement precision best addressed by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), which in contrast to previously used radioimmunoassays eliminates cross-reactivity by other steroids. We describe the use of LC-MS/MS to evaluate the po...

Introduction: Oncogenic osteomalacia (OOM) is an uncommon disorder characterized by hyperphosphaturia, hypophosphatemia, decreased vitamin D3 serum levels, and osteomalacia. The paraneoplastic syndrome is driven by a small somatostatin receptor (sstr)-positive tumor that produces phosphatonins. While it is almost always difficult to detect the tumor by common imaging techniques, PET-CT using the radiotracer 68Ga-DOTANOC represents a novel diagnostic approach which f...

Background: Recent data suggest a direct impact of ghrelin and leptin on the immune system. Ghrelin appears to antagonize these effects. The role of ghrelin and leptin in the context of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AV) has not been reported.Methods: Fasting serum ghrelin, free and bound leptin levels were measured in 44 patients with active AV and 25 in matched healthy controls. Follow-up under immunosuppressive therapy was available in 25 patients (1, 3,...

Purpose: Neuroendocrine dysfunction represents a frequent consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) but has not been studied longitudinally as yet. Here we attempt to identify predictors of late endocrine insufficiency following TBI.Methods: 71 consecutive patients (age 18 – 87 yrs) with TBI assessed by an intial CT and the Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) were prospectively studied as to their pituitary function on day 0, 3 and 7 and dynamically 24–...

Background: Tissue hypoxia is a hallmark of rapidly proliferating tumours which most frequently adapt and prosper under low oxygen tension. The transcription factor, HIF-1α, is mediating these effects and induces target genes involved in survival, invasion and resistance to drugs and radiation. No data are available on the functional regulation of HIF-1α in thyroid carcinoma cells.Methods: Using thyroid carcinoma cells derived from papillary (N...