Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Hyponatremia is the commonest electrolyte abnormality encountered in clinical practice. It is associated with increased mortality and prolonged length of stay. Errors in establishing the aetiology of hyponatremia can lead to inappropriate treatment with adverse outcomes. An accurate diagnosis requires a careful clinical and biochemical assessment. An audit was undertaken to determine current practice at University Hospitals Bristol.Method: A ...

Introduction: Anaplastic thyroid cancer is a devastating disease with median survival between 1.2 and 10 months. The disease accounts for as little as 0.9–1.6% of total thyroid cancer cases, but may account for up to half of all thyroid cancer mortality. The aim of our study is to evaluate the prognostic factors and outcomes of patients diagnosed with anaplastic thyroid cancer in Ireland and review emerging treatments for this disease.Methods and de...

Introduction: Medullary thyroid cancer arises from the calcitonin-secreting parafollicular C cells and consists of a spectrum of disease that ranges from extremely indolent tumours, where patients may survive for many years with a large tumor burden, to aggressive types associated with a high mortality rate. The objective of our study is to evaluate the prognostic factors and outcomes of patients diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer in a homogenous population, and to examin...

Introduction: The increased incidence of thyroid cancer is driven mainly by a large increase in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). The number of patients that succumb to the disease has remained stable. The aim of our study is to analyze the incidence and mortality of thyroid cancer in Ireland.Methods and design: A retrospective analysis of the National Cancer Registry was undertaken, between 1st of January 1998 and the 31st December 2007. The Kaplan–M...

Background: High resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HRpQCT) can accurately determine three-dimensional in-vivo skeletal microstructure. However, HRpQCT is limited to the ultradistal radius and tibia (9 mm) imaging. MRI may be an alternative approach to cortical and trabecular bone analysis; to date there is limited information regarding the accurate quantification of trabecular bone.Method: Ninety-three 13–16 years-old ...

Background: Pheochromocytomas are tumors arising from chromaffin cells diagnosed in <1% of patient evaluated for hypertension.Methodology: A retrospective analysis of case records of those patients with histopathologically confirmed pheochromocytoma in our hospital from 1993–2006 (14 years) was conducted.Result: A total of 94 patients were diagnosed to have pheochromocytoma during this period. The median age at presentatio...

Vitamin D is a pleotropic hormone with important actions in a wide variety of cell types. Whilst its role in the endocrine control of calcium metabolism via the active circulating metabolite 1,25- dihydroxy cholecalciferol is widely appreciated, other actions in a range of cells and tissues depend on activation of circulating 25-hydroxy vitamin D by intracrine mechanisms and paracrine actions which may be locally controlled. Of particular interest are the roles of vitamin D pe...

Aims: A critical function of astrocytes is to recycle glutamate to neurons as glutamine to sustain glutamatergic neurotransmission. In the hypothalamus, this is required for effective counterregulatory hormone release in response to hypoglycaemia. However, after recurrent hypoglycaemia in vivo, this is attenuated. The aim of this study was to characterise how rat primary hypothalamic and cortical astrocytes adapt to recurrent low glucose (RLG) with repeated exposure t...

Pathogenic variants in the SDHx genes are responsible for ~20% of familial Phaeochromocytoma/Paraganglioma (PPGL) tumours. Metastatic disease is lower in SDHD in comparison to SDHA, B and C mutations. Although the genotype-phenotype relationship is not well established it is considered that truncating SDHD pathogenic variants have a higher risk of causing disease in comparison to missense variants. We present two cases of metastatic paraganglioma in patients with heterozygous ...

68 years old female initially referred to endocrine clinic in November 2016 for assessment of fluctuating thyroid function. She had a history of long standing primary hypothyroidism, stable on treatment with 100 mcg Levothyroxine. In last one year, Levothyroxine was tapered and stopped due to persistent suppression of TSH and high normal Free T4. Last tests showed TSH of <0.01mIU/l and Free T4 of 27.1 pmol/l. She had ongoing complaints of feeling increasingly tired and gen...