Endocrine Abstracts

PTH has been reported to enhance steroid secretion in vitro from human adrenocortical cells and some reports indicate an increased cortisol secretion in patients with PHPT that normalizes after surgery. Thus, the possible stimulatory effect of PTH on cortisol secretion could contribute to the impairment of bone status in primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT). The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between parameters of adrenal function, bone metabolism and ...

The vitamin D receptor (VDR) polymorphism, BsmI, has previously been associated with the efficacy of raloxifene therapy. The aim of this study was to examine associations between the BsmI and FokI polymorphisms of the VDR gene and bone density and bone turnover response to raloxifene. One hundred osteopenic postmenopausal women (ages 52 to 80 years, mean 64 years) were prescribed raloxifene (60mg/day) and calcium carbonate (500mg/day) for 48 weeks. Bone density at the lumbar s...

Context: Recent studies showed a high prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms in patients with primary hyperaldosteronism (PA). A cross-sectional analysis suggested only minor improvement following adrenalectomy (ADX) and mineralocorticoidreceptor antagonist (MRA) therapy.Objective: Our aim was to determine the course of anxiety and depression in untreated patients.Design: We investigated 15 patients with PA at time of diagno...

Background: Hypopituitarism is an important sequela of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in adults. In paediatric practice, however, there are concerns that it may be under-recognised. Symptoms may be mistaken for post-concussion syndrome, which may result in delayed investigation and diagnosis. Furthermore, predictors of post-traumatic hypopituitarism (PTHP) in children have not been consistently identified. As normal pituitary function is required for growth, serial growth monito...

In severe CHI which is unresponsive to medical therapy, pancreatic resection is undertaken to prevent further hypoglycaemia from dysregulated beta-cell insulin secretion. Traditionally, 95% subtotal pancreatectomy has been the surgery of choice (Lovvorn et al. 1999), with associated risks of post-operative complications such as lifelong diabetes and malabsorption. Since the introduction of 18F-DOPA PET-CT imaging, clinicians have been able to effectively differentia...

Background: Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) is a new method employed in the management of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). The integrated FDG-PET plus computed tomography (PET/CT) fusion imaging system seems able to provide some additional advantages over PET alone, mainly related to a better anatomical localisation of the hypermetabolic metastatic lesions. The influence of serum TSH levels on 18F-FDG uptake by recurrences o...

Background: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most common potentially curable cause of secondary hypertension and is a risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. For patients with unilateral disease adrenalectomy can be curative. However, PA remains substantially underdiagnosed due the complex diagnostic pathway required to identify patients with unilateral disease, and the difficulties in accurate lateralization of the affected adrenal gland. Spe...

Objective. The aims of our study were to utilise a combination of high fidelity phenotyping, microarray gene expression profiling and conserved synteny mapping between rodent and human genomes to identify genetic determinants underlying human hypertension.Methods. We used the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHRSP) and a congenic strain (SP.WKYGla2c*) produced by introgressing a quantitative trait locus responsible for blood pressure regulation on rat chromosom...

OBJECTIVE Measurement of serum testosterone level is an integral part of the assessment of men presenting to endocrine clinics. Little is known about variation of testosterone level by ethnic group. The principal determinant of testosterone bioavailability is sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) which itself is a marker for insulin sensitivity. Our aim was to examine variations in testosterone and SHBG levels across three ethnic groups in relation to ethnic differences in insul...

Introduction: Human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) is a non-classical HLA-class Ib molecule with multiple immunoregulatory properties. Its main role is the maintenance of tolerance between maternal immune system and semiallogenic fetus. The expression of HLA-G antigen has been reported in several cancers and seems to play an important role in the escape of tumour cells from immune surveillance. A 14 bp insertion/deletion polymorphism in exon 8 of the 3′ untranslated region ...