Endocrine Abstracts

The increase in marrow adipogenesis associated with osteoporosis and age-related osteopenia is well known clinically. However, we are only now beginning to understand the mechanisms that control the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells to either osteoblasts or adipocytes. Recent work with gene silencing and overexpression has provided insight into critical pathways that determine the fate of these multipotential cells. In vitro and in vivo studies strongly s...

The link between thyroid hormone deficiency and optimal neurodevelopment in early childhood is well established. More recently, data from animal model experiments and epidemiological databases have indicated that perturbations in maternal and fetal thyroid hormone concentrations may affect fetal outcome and, in particular, have an adverse effect on neurodevelopmental outcome. Epidemiological evidence in human pregnancies has indicated that hypothyroxinaemia in the fetus in the...

Recent advances in immunology have resulted in the development of new classes of immune-modulatory therapy in the management of cancers and an increased overall survival for various cancers. Immune checkpoint direct antibodies block intrinsic down-regulators of immunity, such as cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) or its ligand, programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1). As an inevitable consequence of increasing the activity of the immune...

As information scales in non clinical environments, people are faced with challenges as to what information is relevant to healthcare teams. PeopleWith is a digital health company developing solutions to help people engage with their health. Patients who engage with their health get better treatment outcomes. How do we support patients on this journey to become fully activated in their health and become a participant in conversations to optimise outcomes....

Information is becoming increasingly available in non clinical environments with the scale in functionality in smart mobile devices, wearables and home health devices. This creates a challenge for patients and Clinicians as to what information to capture and how to present and share it. PeopleWith has been developed by a healthcare veteran with 30 years experience working in Nursing and the Pharmaceutical industry. This information is known as Patient generated health data and...

Information is becoming increasingly available in non clinical environments with the scale in functionality in smart mobile devices, wearables and home health devices. This creates a challenge for patients and Clinicians as to what information to capture and how to present and share it. PeopleWith has been developed by a healthcare veteran with 30 years experience working in Nursing and the Pharmaceutical industry. This information is known as Patient generated health data and...

Introduction: Hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism (HH) is a genetically heterogeneous disorder. A number of genes have been implicated in its pathogenesis but, to date, in most cases, the cause remains genetically unknown.Case: A 14-year old male with delayed puberty (G1P2A3, testes two males) and family history of HH was diagnosed with HH following anterior pituitary assessment and an overnight gonadotrophin profile. His baseline gonadotrophins were low (LH,...

Case history: We present a 71 year old man, with a 3 year history of problematic hypertension (BP exceeding 190/100 on treatment), incidentally found to be hypokalaemic (K 1.8 mmol/l) during investigations for leg weakness. He had no clinical features to suggest an endocrinopathy. Investigations at his local centre revealed hypokalaemia dating back over 3 years.Investigations: Biochemistry:Na 142 mmol/l (135–145 mmol/l)<p ...

Introduction: Contrary to US guidelines, recent European guidelines do not recommend tolvaptan for the treatment of SIADH.Methods: Retrospective data collection of all inpatients treated with tolvaptan for SIADH in two UK hospitals between November 2010 and February 2014. All values were calculated as mean±S.D.Results: This case series included 61 patients (33 females, 28 males) aged 74.4±15.3 years with se...

Background: Inappropriately high aldosterone in patients with primary hyperaldosteronism (PHA) is due to increased aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) activity. Selective in vivo imaging of overexpressed CYP11B2 in adrenals with positron emission tomography (PET) has not yet been achieved due to close homology of enzymes involved in aldosterone and cortisol (CYP11B1) synthesis.Aim: Synthesize a fluorine-18 labelled highly selective CYP11B2 inhibitor,...