Endocrine Abstracts

The Chernobyl accident in 1986 resulted in a release of radioiodine that contaminated large areas of what are now Belarus, Northern Ukraine and a neighbouring area of Russia. The major health consequence of the accident to date has been a large increase in thyroid cancer in those who were children or adolescents at the time of exposure. The increase is mostly restricted to an increase in papillary carcinoma, of a particular subtype (the solid follicular variant) and associated...

Thyroid hormone (T3) is required for skeletal development during childhood and T3 regulates bone turnover and mineralisation in adults. Thyrotoxicosis is an established risk factor for osteoporosis. We and others have shown that T3 receptors (TRs) are expressed in osteoblasts and growth plate chondrocytes, which represent primary T3-target cells in the skeleton. T3 effects on osteoclast-mediated bone resorption are thought to be mediated by osteoblasts via paracrine pathways. ...

The stress system coordinates the adaptive responses of the organism to stressors of any kind. The main components of the stress system are the CRH and Locus Ceruleus-Norepinephrine (LC/NE)-Autonomic systems and their peripheral effectors, the pituitary-adrenal axis, and the limbs of the autonomic system. Activation of the stress system leads to behavioral and peripheral changes that improve the ability of the organism to adjust homeostasis and increase its chances for surviva...

The nature of the hypothalamic factors which control GH secretion in animals and man have emerged since the description of somatostatin (SS) in the early 1970s. Confusion originally arose when the ubiquitous distribution and apparent non-specificity of the actions of SS were established. Understanding of the paracrine nature of SS's action and the dependence of the specificity of its effects upon the locus of secretion and its short half-life in the circulation provided for an...

It is often said that the transition from paediatric to adult care should be seamless. At the same time, the first visit to an adult clinic is a time to stop, take stock and reorganise. Clinicians must be aware of the importance of this first visit in overcoming the disillusionment that often is felt by an individual as they leave the cosy world of a paediatric service and move into the busy, fragmented world of adult care. However thoroughly a child coming up for transfer is ...

Insulin tolerance test (ITT) is considered the golden standard test to evaluate HPA axis in suspected hypopituitarism. Low dose (1 μg) ACTH1–24 short stimulation test (LDSST) and metyrapone are often used when ITT is contraindicated. The diagnostic reliability of LDSST is, however, controversial, as even this dose has been considered supramaximal, while very low ACTH doses have been suggested more reliable to assess the adrenal sensitivity. Thus, in...

Introduction: Patients with acromegaly are frequently left with long-term adverse sequelae. When compared with individuals with other pituitary adenomas, patients with acromegaly demonstrate greater impairment in their quality of life (QoL).Methods: The disease-specific questionnaire, AcroQoL, and the generic psychological general well-being schedule (PGWBS) were used to evaluate QoL in an acromegaly patient cohort. Longitudinal data were also collected ...

A 69-year-old woman developed hypertension, polyuria and hyperglycemia over the course of several months. The initial biochemical investigation revealed ACTH-dependent hypercortisolism (UFC 409.7 μg/24 h, NR 10–80; ACTH 43.3 pg/ml, NR 8–50; OST 28 μg/dl) and moderately elevated urinary catecholamines (E 80.5 μg/24 h, NR 2.5–33.6; norE 235.8 μg/24 h, NR 18.1–128.2). Further investigations disclosed absent ACTH and cortisol responses to CR...

Adrenal rests, nodules of the adrenal, in patients with chronic elevation of ACTH levels have been previously described.The aim was to describe the case of a patient with an adrenal tumor and late onset 21-hydroxylase deficiency.A female patient, aged 76 years, presented with an incidentally discovered mass of the left adrenal measuring 1.2 cm. The patient was short with a height of 152 cm. Morning serum ACTH levels were 31 pg/ml, ...

Pituitary tumors are most usual intracranial tumors, displaying hormonal hyper-secretion with in some cases a sustained cell proliferation. The somatotroph adenomas are characterised by a GH hypersecretion. The current treatments are based on somatostatinergic or dopaminergic agonists. Unfortunately, there is steel 50% of patients, which remain insensitive to these treatments. The aim of our work is to find a pharmacological alternative to treat the patients resistant to the c...