Endocrine Abstracts

Sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) is a glycoprotein which binds hormones such as testosterone. Around 97% of circulating testosterone is bound to SHBG and is therefore biologically unavailable; approximately 2–3% of testosterone is free or loosely bound to proteins such as albumin, and is biologically active, or bioavailable. Free testosterone is very technically challenging to quantify; in order to circumvent this problem, equations are used...

Background: It has been proposed that menopause has a beneficial effect on the natural history of hyperprolactinaemia attributed to prolactinoma. Nonetheless, series systematically assessing outcome in females with prolactinoma who have passed through menopause are very limited.Aim: To investigate the impact of menopause on prolactinomas in patients not on dopamine agonist (DA) treatment.Patie...

Background: Diagnosis of adrenal hypofunction requires a high index of suspicion. A frequent cause is iatrogenic glucocorticosteroid prescribing hence the need for a clinical review after a prolonged course.Aim: A review of glucocorticosteroid prescribing and auditing SST outcomes in a large private hospital.Methods: Electronic records over an 18 month period were analysed for SST results, patient demogra...

Heterotrimeric G-proteins are important molecular switches that transduce extracellular ligand-binding at G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to intracellular signals. G-protein alpha-subunits (Gα) have two domains, a helical and GTPase domain, which provide structural stability and mediate GTPase activity, respectively. Gain-of-function Gα mutations cause endocrine conditions including McCune-Albright Syndrome, due to Gαs mutations, and a...

Sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) is a glycoprotein which binds hormones such as testosterone. Around 97% of circulating testosterone is bound to SHBG and is therefore biologically unavailable; approximately 2–3% of testosterone is free or loosely bound to proteins such as albumin, and is biologically active, or bioavailable. Free testosterone is very technically challenging to quantify; in order to circumvent this problem, equations are used...

Background: It has been proposed that menopause has a beneficial effect on the natural history of hyperprolactinaemia attributed to prolactinoma. Nonetheless, series systematically assessing outcome in females with prolactinoma who have passed through menopause are very limited.Aim: To investigate the impact of menopause on prolactinomas in patients not on dopamine agonist (DA) treatment.Patie...

Background: Measurement of salivary glucocorticoids is gaining popularity as it offers a non-invasive collection technique, enabling sampling in the community or home environment, allowing tailored capture of steroid circadian rhythm and improved patient experience. Current popular salivary collection methods cannot be used in very young children due to choking and the requirement for active participation. There is little data on saliva stability during home collection.<p ...

Background: There is currently no agreed consensus for the optimization and titration of mineralocorticoid (MC) therapy in patients with primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI).Objective: To explore the relationship between serum (sFC) and urine (uFC) fludrocortisone levels and biochemically and clinically important variables, and to assess their utility in guiding and titrating MC replacement.Methods: Multi-centre, observational, cros...

Obesity is a leading global health concern. The gut-brain axis is critical to appetite regulation. The vagus nerve represents the major neural pathway between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system, capable of rapidly communicating information about the nutrient content from different regions of the gastrointestinal tract, directly via nutrient receptors expressed on vagal afferents and indirectly by responding to gut hormones and enteric nervous system sign...

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors have not been shown to be active in well-differentiated NETs, with response rates <5%. Lenvatinib is a multitargeted TKI which targets VEGF and FGF receptors and has been reported to be effective in pancreatic and gastrointestinal NETs (40% and 18.5% ORR, respectively). The combination of antiangiogenic and checkpoint inhibitor therapies can be synergistic in other cancers. We therefore evaluated the combination of lenvatinib and pe...