Endocrine Abstracts

A 30-year-old Caucasian lady was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in July 2005 on an oral glucose tolerance test and was treated with metformin. Sixteen months later she presented with urinary symptoms and was noted to have 2+ ketonuria. Her blood glucose was 13.4 mmol/l. Her BMI was 26 kg/m2 and she was noted to have Cushingoid habitus and acanthosis nigricans. Her blood pressure was normal. Her serum sodium was 130 mmol/l, potassium 3.7 mmol/l and bicarbonate 8 mmol...

Background & aims: Impaired glucose tolerance and diabetes as well as cardiac dysfunction are known complications in homozygous beta-thalassemic transfused patients due to iron overload. We aimed to study pancreatic alpha and beta-cell function in regularly transfused patients with homozygous beta-thalassemia and to investigate if cardiac dysfunction may correlate with the development of impaired glucose metabolism.Methods: An oral glucose tolerance ...

Case history: A previously healthy 39 year-old male presented to his optometrist with visual disturbance. Visual field perimetry confirmed bitemporal hemianopia, prompting referral to endocrinology. On questioning, he reported an increase in hand and shoe size, but no headache or diaphoresis. Examination revealed classical acromegaloid features including prognathism, spatulate hands and prominent orbital margins, as well as marked bilateral macro-orchidism.<p class="abstex...

Background & Aims: The aims of transsphenoidal surgery (restoration/preservation of vision and amelioration of hormonal excess) are balanced against the risk of inducing new post-operative pituitary deficits. This study aims to assess the rate of new anterior hormonal deficits following transsphenoidal pituitary adenoma surgery in our centre and to assess whether the visibility of normal pituitary gland on pre-operative imaging predic...

Background & Aims: The aims of transsphenoidal surgery (restoration/preservation of vision and amelioration of hormonal excess) are balanced against the risk of inducing new post-operative pituitary deficits. This study aims to assess the rate of new anterior hormonal deficits following transsphenoidal pituitary adenoma surgery in our centre and to assess whether the visibility of normal pituitary gland on pre-operative imaging predic...

Case history: A 66-year-old man presented with a 1 month history of a productive cough, in the context of a 20 pack-year smoking history. CT chest revealed minor bronchiectasis and an incidental 3 cm right adrenal lesion. He was referred to the endocrine clinic for further evaluation. On questioning, he reported no symptoms suggestive of adrenal hormone hypersecretion and, aside from a short history (<1 month) of sweating episodes at night, he described no other constituti...

Background: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is responsible for 5-10% of all cases of HTN. The current gold standard test for determining the side of aldosterone hypersecretion is adrenal vein sampling (AVS). 11C-Metomidate PET/CT (METO-PET) has recently emerged as a potential non-invasive alternative to AVS. As 11C-Metomidate is concentrated within ‘hyperfunctioning’ nodules, METO-PET potentially not only identifies the side, but the exact site of al...

Background: Prolactinomas are the commonest hormone-secreting pituitary adenomas. First-line treatment is dopamine agonist (DA) therapy. However, side-effects are increasingly recognised, leading to an increasing consideration of transsphenoidal surgery (TSS) and/or radiotherapy. Co-registration of 11C-methionine Positron Emission Tomography (Met-PET) imaging with Spoiled Gradient Recalled Acquisition MRI (SPGR MRI), referred to in combination as Met-PET/MRI, can aid accurate ...

Acromegaly is a clinical manifestation of excessive peripheral growth hormone (GH) action. Most cases result from pituitary somatotroph adenomas displaying varying degrees of GH immunoreactivity. Occasionally, GH is cosecreted with a second hormone from adenomas containing mixed cell populations (e.g. somatolactotroph tumours). Coexistence of multiple discrete adenomas, identical or distinct in hormone secretion, is infrequent. In very rare cases, acromegaly results from neuro...

Background: Thyrotropinomas (TSHomas) are traditionally considered a rare, albeit important cause of thyrotoxicosis. Although early case series reported a predominance of invasive macroadenomas, emerging evidence suggests microadenomas are being increasingly diagnosed, and the clinical/biochemical phenotype appears to be more variable than previously suspected. We therefore performed detailed phenotyping of patients referred to our centre with a diagnosis of TSHoma over a 4-ye...