Endocrine Abstracts

For the last 15 years, I have suffered from the respectable addiction of collecting modern Scottish art. During that same period I have become alarmed by the many influences which have conspired, not always by chance, to reduce the professionalism of doctors. The intention is to illustrate my many prejudices in respect of issues, ranging from the European Working Time Directive to national guidelines, from loss of paternalism to the difficulties in conducting observational cli...

Approximately 1 in 650 children will develop a childhood malignancy by the age of 15 years. Improvements in diagnosis, treatment and supportive care over the last 30 years mean that approximately 80% of children diagnosed with cancer can now expect to survive more than five years. Approximately 1 in 250 young adults in the UK is a survivor (more than five years from end of therapy and disease-free) of childhood cancer. In the adult field it is estimated that 2 million people i...

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The spectrum of thyroid problems seen in paediatric endocrine practice is different to that seen in later life. Topics that have attracted particular interest include the HPT axis in pre-term infants, the significance of a subtle increase in TSH, and associations between thyroid function in childhood and risk of disease in later life. This talk will include lessons learnt from patients seen in North–East England and from studies conducted in the same locality.<p class...

Metabolism comprises anabolic (converting small molecules into big ones) and catabolic processes (converting food into useful energy), predicts the functional state of a cell, and analyzes the levels of the end products (metabolites) of anabolism and catabolism. Metabolic profiling using stable isotope tracer technology ([U-13C6] sugars) allows the measurement of the changing pattern of distribution of 13C carbons from [U-13C6</...

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Thyroid hormone is essential for the metabolic function of all tissues throughout life and for the development of different organs, notably the brain. Although the thyroid gland mainly secretes T4, most actions of thyroid hormone are initiated by binding of T3 to its nuclear receptor. The biological activity of thyroid hormone in target cells is determined by the intracellular T3 concentration which depends on the circulating levels of T3 and its precursor T4, the activity of ...