Endocrine Abstracts

Background: A re-emergence of mild iodine deficiency in the United Kingdom (UK) has been reported. A recent UK study suggested a dose dependent relationship between mild maternal deficiency and a number of childhood cognitive scores. The World Health Organisation defines sufficiency in a population as a median urinary iodine concentration (UIC) of ≥100 μg/l in non-pregnant women and infants and ≥150 μg/l during pregnancy. It also recommends a daily intake...

Nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase (NNT) is an integral protein of the inner mitochondrial membrane and plays a major role in maintaining the redox balance by catalysing the trans-hydrogenation between NADH and NADP+ and proton translocation across the mitochondrial membrane.Genetic variants in NNT have recently been reported in patients with familial glucocorticoid deficiency (FGD), combined mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid deficiency...

Introduction: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most common endocrine cause of hypertension affecting up-to 10% of hypertensives. Saline suppression, a confirmatory test for PA helps avoiding patients undergoing invasive lateralisation procedures due to a false positive aldosterone-to-renin ratio (ARR). The proposed cut-off to exclude PA is post-saline aldosterone suppression to <140 pmol/l. We reviewed our biochemical work-up in order to optimise laboratory assessment.</p...

A 36 year-old female presented with increasing headaches over the previous 8 months. She had seen in the neurology clinic recently and treated for migraines and cluster headache. She also had a history of depression. She had prodromal aura of visual disturbance including blurred vision and photophobia.She was admitted following sudden onset of stabbing pain over the left eye along with nausea. All these symptoms were classic of her usual migraines. On ad...

A 52 years old man was referred to the renal clinic for persistent proteinurea and leg swelling with suspicion of nephrotic syndrome. He had a history of Hypertension and chronic depression and was taking olanzapine, venlafaxine, Ramipril.He also had diarrhoea of 5–6 stools per day over the last 6 months. He was getting short of breath and had lost weight. On examination he had erythematous rash over the face, limbs and abdomen which he mentioned was exacerbated by stress...

Thyrotoxic period paralysis is a rare endocrine emergency associated with hyperthyroidism that needs urgent treatment. We present a case of a 19-year-old Chinese student who was admitted with progressive weakness in his lower limbs developing overnight. He was resident at the students’ hostel and went to sleep after ignoring mild leg weakness overnight but could not even get up from his bed in the morning. Luckily his friend called the ambulance and brought him in hospita...

Positive interference in free thyroxine (fT4) and free triiodothyronine (fT3) immunoassays is well known, however we report a rare case of negative interference in the Roche fT4 and fT3 immunoassays in a 3-year-old girl with undetectable fT4 and fT3. She presented with increasing tiredness, abdominal pain, pain in her lower limbs and constipation. Examination was unremarkable. Thyroid func...

Hashimoto’s encephalopathy (HE) is a very rare neuropsychiatric condition associated with autoimmune thyroid disorders which shows a remarkable response to steroid therapy and hence is also called steroid-responsive encephalopathy associated with autoimmune thyroiditis (SREAT). We report a case of 44 year old lady presenting twice with psycho-affective symptoms but not receiving the diagnosis on first presentation. She initially presented with 3 wee...

Background and aims: The ISO guideline 15197 lays out the system accuracy (SA) and user performance (UP) evaluation requirements for BGMS for self-testing in managing diabetes mellitus. They require the measurement of blood glucose to be tested across a spectrum of glucose ranges to demonstrate accuracy, including within the hypoglycemic range. Fulfilling the requirements for accuracy evaluations at the hypoglycaemic range can be challenging. The aim of the study was to show t...

Androgen secreting adrenal tumor is a rare cause of androgen excess in women. There are only few case-reports of androgen producing adenoma in a patient with congenital adrenal hyperplasia.Our patient, 61 year old woman was referred to our department for progressive hirsutism and androgenic alopecia. She did not mention neither excessive facial hair growth nor balding until age of 59 when rapidly progressive balding and overt hirsutism started. She has h...