Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: A key feature of a benign adrenal tumor is its hormonal production. It is reflected by serum steroid levels. A tumoral tissue steroid content is not commonly measured.Methods: A steroid metabolome comprising of 65 steroids was measured in four samples from each of two patients using GC-MS in serum before and after 1mg dexamethasone test, in the tumoral tissue and in the adrenal tissue of two female patients with adrenal adenomas. The first ...

Introduction: Inconsistent data exist as to whether menopause is associated with increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. However, few studies have evaluated differences in apolipoprotein metabolism according to menopausal status and gender. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of gender and menopause on serum apolipoprotein B (apoB), A-I (apoA-I) and A-II (apoA-II) concentrations.Methods/design: A cross-sectional analysis was underta...

Objective: Growth hormone (GH) has long been known to have neuroprotective properties. Hypophysectomy (Hx) completely abolishes circulating endocrine GH. Also neuronal (non-erythrocyte) haemoglobin beta chain (Hbb) in the hippocampus decreases following Hx while GH infusions and injections robustly increase the levels approximately 2-4-fold in male rat hippocampus. Recently it has been revealed that Hbb protein is present in mitochondria in the mammalian brain. Current investi...

Background: Acid-labile subunit (ALS) protein plays a vital role in maintaining the serum IGF by prolonging the half-life of IGF/IGFBP binary complex. ALS deficiency due to IGFALS gene mutation results in primary IGF1 deficiency and associated with growth impairment, insulin resistance and occasionally delayed puberty.Case report: A 9-year-old boy was referred for short stature (height −1.8 SDS and weight −1.8 SDS). He is the sixth of non-con...

Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) is well recognised in HIV infected and transplant recipient populations and prophylaxis is standard practice. PJP may also occur in rarer cases of immunodeficiency. We report 2 cases of Cushing’s syndrome complicated by PJP. Patient 1 was a 30 year old Indian male who presented with 2 weeks of bloody diarrhoea, abdominal pain and lethargy. He was cushingoid and investigations showed severe hypercortisolism (urinary cortisol >266,...

Spindle Cell Oncocytoma (SCO) is a neoplasm of the adenohypophysis, often pre-operatively misdiagnosed as pituitary macroadenoma due to its rarity. First described in 2002, 28 cases have been described. It is a benign tumour manifesting in adults with no sex predilection, classified as WHO Grade I. A 71-year-old woman presented with bitemporal hemianopia, secondary hypoadrenalism, hypothyroidism and hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism. Imaging in October 2017 confirmed a 18.0×...

We present a 52-year-old female with a 26-year history of type-2 diabetes mellitus who has been difficult to treat owing to the development of multiple insulin allergies. She initially developed local hyperpigmentation and itchy swellings at the injection sites of her Humulin I in 2016, with similar symptoms occurring when she was switched to NovoRapid. Additionally, she developed one severe, systemic reaction to Humulin I. All insulin treatment was stopped, and she was left s...

A 79-year-old female patient, with a background history of hypertension and ischaemic heart disease was brought by ambulance to hospital with near collapse episode associated with capillary blood glucose (CBG) of 2.1 mmol/l. Her regular medications include Ramipril, clopidogrel and atorvastatin. She had no history of diabetes. While inpatient, it was observed that majority of low capillary blood glucose readings (CBG) were late night or early mornings. At venous glucose of 1.9...

Germline aryl hydrocarbon receptor-interacting protein (AIP) mutations are responsible for 30% of pituitary gigantism cases. However, pathological accelerated growth and/or tall stature can be unrelated to the growth hormone (GH) axis, and may occur in isolation or as part of a syndrome, such as in Klinefelter, Marfan or Sotos syndromes. We report a five-generation kindred with two brothers with pituitary gigantism due to AIP mutation-positive GH-secreting pi...

Adeno-gangliocytomas are rare tumours of the pituitary gland with less than 40 cases described worldwide. Due to the rarity of these tumours, treatment modalities largely follow that of conventional therapies for common pituitary lesions. Case reports on these tumours offer insight into their presentation and the effectiveness of treatment which helps guide future management. A 64-year-old man was admitted for stone fragmentation and ureteric stent insertion. During anaestheti...