Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is a common, curable and high-risk subset of hypertension, mandating detection. In all but the most severe cases, learned society guidelines recommend confirmatory testing. Whilst a variety of confirmatory tests exist, data describing their safety are limited. Concerns centre around the potential of some tests to precipitate hypokalaemia or a hypertensive emergency in a patient with PA on sub-optimal anti-hypertensive medication. In this ...

Case history: A 74-year-old gentleman with primary aldosteronism (PA) was referred for the ‘MATCH’ study – a prospective comparison of 11C-metomidate PET CT with adrenal vein sampling. He took no exogenous steroids.Investigations: Na 147 mmol/l, K 3.7 mmol/l, aldosterone 496 pmol/l, renin activity <0.17 nmol/l per h, random cortisol 247 nmol/l and concomitant ACTH 9.3 ng/l. Two overnight dexamethasone suppression tests recorded values ...

Background: Characterisation of large adrenal lesion is challenging. There is no single robust imaging marker in defining benignity, especially for lesions which are greater than 4cm and are believed to carry increased risk of malignancy.A radiolabelled cholesterol analog tracer, I-131-Norcholesterol (NP-59), localises to adrenal cortical lesions. It has an established role in Conn’s syndrome. It is not expected to concent...

Background: Characterisation of large adrenal lesion is challenging. There is no single robust imaging marker in defining benignity, especially for lesions which are greater than 4cm and are believed to carry increased risk of malignancy.A radiolabelled cholesterol analog tracer, I-131-Norcholesterol (NP-59), localises to adrenal cortical lesions. It has an established role in Conn’s syndrome. It is not expected to concent...

Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the cause of 5–10% of hypertension, surgically curable in patients with unilateral aldosterone-producing adenomas (APAs). However <1% of patients are currently diagnosed and cured. Newer and simpler modalities of diagnosis and treatment are required. The aim of FABULAS (a feasibility study of endoscopic ultrasound-guided ablation as a non-surgical, adrenal sparing treatment for aldosterone-producing adenomas) is to determine in 30 patient...

Background: Lipoprotein (a) (Lp(a)) is a low-density lipoprotein like particle which has proatherogenic and a prothrombotic properties. Therefore, increased Lp(a) levels have been reported to be associated with a higher cardiovascular risk in numerous studies. However, the association between Lp(a) and metabolic disorders such as diabetes or metabolic syndrome (MetS) is still controversial. This study aimed to examine the association between Lp(a) levels and presence of MetS i...

Introduction: Mutations in the aryl hydrocarbon receptor-interaction protein (AIP) gene predisposes to growth hormone or prolactin secretin adenomas, usually, manifesting before the age of 30 years old. There are 834 variants of the AIP reported in the GnomAD database and over 100 variants have been described in patients with pituitary adenomas. While the pathogenic role of variants resulting in truncated protein is beyond doubt, determination of the clinical...

Purpose: Aster spathulifolius Maxim is one of plants of chrysanthemum, which has shown an anti-obesity activity in diet induced mice model. We performed clinical trial for evaluating the anti-obesity efficacy and safety of Aster spathulifolius Maxim extract on obese human.Methods: This study was randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in Korea. A total of 41 obese subjects (BMI 25–30 kg/m2) aged ≥20 years were ra...

Familial glucocorticoid deficiency (FGD) is a rare autosomal recessive disease due in ∼25% of cases to defects in the ACTH receptor (melcanocortin 2 receptor -MC2R). Slow progress in characterization of these mutations has been made in view of the difficulty in establishing a functional heterologous cell transfection system for the MC2R, and the best available models relate to the mouse Y6/OS3 cell lines. However we have shown previously that the melanocortin 2 receptor ...

Background/objective: Published data suggest that growth hormone replacement (GHR) may be safely given to patients with hypopituitarism consequent upon a pituitary/peri-pituitary tumour. However, to date, these series have included a preponderance of patients treated with external pituitary irradiation. We have performed a retrospective study to evaluate the recurrence rate in a group of patients with pituitary/peripituitary tumours treated with GHR.Meth...