Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Placental signalling has been postulated to drive inflammation, endothelial dysfunction and insulin resistance in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).Objectives: To determine if placental signalling contributes to systemic insulin resistance in GDM.Methods: Adiponectin, leptin, adipsin and resistin in placental and omental explant culture supernatants (n=10 GDM and n=10 control) and maternal plasma (n=20 GDM and n=20 co...

Stiff person syndrome (SPS) is a rare disease characterized by progressive muscle rigidity and spasms, which can lead to functional disability. This condition can be challenging to diagnose if there is no high index of suspicion. Its etiology is unknown, but one of the most likely causes is autoimmune aggression, which is corroborated by that fact that it is associated with other autoimmune diseases in half of the cases described in literature.We will pr...

Several preparations of thyroxine are available nowadays but is a great challenge for every clinician when the oral and intramuscular administration is failing and has to consider long term intravenous administration. This is a 42 years old lady who had a total thyroidectomy for Graves thyrotoxicosis. She commenced on multiple oral preparations of thyroxine and liothyroxine with no biochemical response. This is not a case of pseudomalabsorption as oral absorption studies of hi...

Background: Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory granulomatous multisystem disorder commonly presenting with noncaseating granulomas in lung and lymphoid tissue. Other organs like skin, eye and joints also involved.Case report: We present a 62-year-old diabetic woman presented to the emergency with progressive alteration in sensorium and left hemiparesis for two days. Patient had lower respiratory tract associated with recurrent hypoglycaemic attacks two weeks...

Male hypogonadism is usually considered in the presence of classical symptoms like reduced libido, erectile dysfunction and reduced bone mineral density.We present the case history of a 43-year-old man with learning difficulties who presented with long-standing lethargy. Clinical examination revealed bilateral ptosis, muscle weakness and slow relaxation of handgrip. He had abdominal obesity, pseudo-gynaecomastia, frontal balding, reduced facial, chest, a...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), a rare tumor, with incidence of 1–2 per million population annually, has a bimodal distribution by age, with cases clustering in children under 6, and in adults 30–40 years old. ACC has a dismal prognosis. The only curative treatment is complete surgical excision of the tumor, but late diagnosis prevents surgical cure, since ACC frequently recurs and metastasize. Chemotherapy is frequently ineffective, due to the overexpression of the ...

The currently curative therapy for pancreatic endocrine tumours (PET), accounting for <3% of pancreatic tumors, is complete surgical resection, which is achieved in the minority of cases. Most tumors are diagnosed in a late stage, especially in endocrine-inactive forms, indicating the need for further medical therapy. The serine–threonine protein kinase C (PKC) family plays central regulatory roles in several cellular processes, including cell proliferation. PKC signa...

GH replacement is widely used in adults with hypopituitarism, but its effect on tumor occurrence and pituitary tumor recurrence is unknown. Furthermore, in literature there are scant with short follow-up time. The available data do not seem to suggest that rhGH replacement increased the incidence of regrowth of pituitary tumor and of cancer in adults with GHD, provided that IGF1 concentrations remain within the normal range for age.The aim of our study w...

Introduction: 3-M syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder characterised by pre- and postnatal growth restriction, characteristic facial dysmorphism, normal intelligence and radiological features (slender long bones and tall vertebral bodies). It is known to be caused by mutations in the genes encoding Cullin 7 (a component of the ubiquitination system) and Obscurin like-1 (a cytoskeletal protein). The mechanisms through which mutations in these genes impair growth are uncl...

Introduction: Metformin induced impaired vitamin B12 absorption leading to fall in serum cobalamin levels has been described in literature as early as 1971. Approximately 10% of patients and in some studies 30% of patients on metformin therapy developed metformin related cobalamin deficiency. The risk of cobalamin deficiency is comparatively more among patients with vegetarian diet than in non-vegetarians.Objective: To evaluate the effect of dose and dur...