Endocrine Abstracts

The low dose dexamethasone suppression test (LDDT) is used routinely to exclude Cushings. This test can also be used to exclude androgen secreting tumours in females with elevated testosterone levels through normalisation of, or >40% suppression of serum levels.We have audited the use of the LDDT to assess its value in investigating women with raised androgens, to ascertain whether it reduced the need for other investigations and to identify any prob...

A 52-year-old gentleman was referred for the evaluation of hypercalcaemia. He gave a four week history of feeling generally unwell with dizziness, abdominal discomfort, weight loss, nausea and vomiting. He was an ex-heavy smoker and was on Lithium for about 20 years for bipolar disorder. He had had a recent admission to hospital with sepsis, secondary to chest infection, with a brief ITU stay and was discharged only 3 weeks prior to the onset of current illness.<p class="a...

A 33-year-old male presented with headache and visual loss in May 2003. MRI pituitary showed a large tumor arising from pituitary fossa extending to suprasellar cistern compressing the optic chiasm with features recent infarction. He subsequently underwent urgent trans-sphenoidal decompression and a necrotic prolactinoma was excised with full recovery of his vision. His prolactin level remained elevated and so he was treated with cabergoline. Further questioning revealed that ...

Factitious hypoglycaemia is characterised by high insulin levels but accompanied with low Proinsulin and C-peptide levels and a negative sulfonylurea screenWe present a 54-year-old woman who was initially diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2002 and by 2004, she was converted to insulin treatment due to poor tolerance to Metformin. She also had a previous history of Manic depressive psychosis and treated with lithium.In the months pr...

BackgroundPembolizumab is a highly specific, monoclonal antibody directed against the programmed cell death receptor, PD-1 and its ligand PD-L1. It is licenced as an immunotherapy for use in locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cell carcinoma, amongst other malignancies. Whilst rare, endocrinopathies, including thyroid dysfunction, are recognised side effects of immunotherapy such as Pembroluzimab. However, hyperthyroidism is much less common than h...

Background: Increased rates of autoimmune diseases (ADs) have been reported in association with Hashimoto′s thyroiditis (HT); however, the risk factors for coexisting ADs in HT patients have been poorly investigated.Objective: To evaluate the prevalence and factors associated with AD comorbidities in patients with HT.Materials and Methods: We recruited 687 patients (626 F and 61 M, mean age at diagnosis 39 ± 14.06 yr, F:...

An increased prevalence of acromegaly and pituitary tumors has recently been observed in high industrial density areas (Cannavò et al. J Endocrinol 2010) or after dioxin exposure (Pesatori et al. Eur J Endocrinol 2008). These data as well as vitro studies on endocrine disruptors (EDs) suggest that environmental pollutants may affect hormonal secretion and pituitary cell proliferation (Blake et al. Proc Soc Exp Biol...

PATZ1 is a recently discovered zinc finger protein that, due to the presence of the POZ domain, acts as a transcriptional repressor affecting the basal activity of different promoters, and associates with a variety of transcription factors (i.e. RNF4, HMGA1, gscl, SPBP). We have previously described, by using mice lacking the PATZ1 gene, its crucial role in spermatogenesis. Consistently, PATZ1-KO mice are unfertile and testes from these mice showed only few spermatocyte...

Sorafenib (S) is a reasonably well-tolerated therapy in DTC. A large number of side-effects have been reported. We report our data on the effectiveness and tolerability of S in 6 patients with advanced metastatic epithelial (2 follicular, 1 papillary, 1 insular) and medullary DTCs (52–79 years). In all patients, heart function was evaluated before and during S administration (400 mg/day) together with the objective response rate and changes in serum markers. Underlying he...

Biochemical control of acromegaly is currently defined by the achievement of GH suppression after oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and of normal age- and gender-matched IGF1 levels. OGTT is believed to inhibit somatotropin secretion by enhancing central somatostatinergic tone; thus, the use of this test in evaluating biochemical control in acromegalic patients on somatostatin analogues (SSA) is questionable. To gain further insights into this topic, we analyzed basal and nad...