Endocrine Abstracts

A 20 year old female with a 3 year history of type 1 diabetes presented to the emergency department unresponsive and was diagnosed with severe diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). She had no other past medical history and was on a basal bolus regime of insulin only. GCS was 7, pH 6.7, HCO3 3.5 mmol/l, ketones 3+ on urinalysis and blood glucose of 43 mmol/l.She was commenced on fixed rate insulin infusion and IV fluids however also noted to have unequal pupils. S...

Introduction: Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a very rare neoplasm with an incidence of about one case per million population. It is an agressive tumor (overall 5-year survival 16–38%) and complete resection is the only curative treatment.Description of methods: We report four cases of ACC. The clinical and biochemical features at diagnosis along with clinical course of the disease are discussed.Results: Four patients (three...

Introduction: Hypovitaminosis D is a biochemical change with high prevalence among the population, especially in obese patients. Its function more known relates to bones metabolism, although recently, many functions have been described.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study, which included women over 18 years old with BMI equal or superior of 25 kg/m2. Anthropometric measurements were obtained: weight, height, BMI, waist circumference, h...

Introduction: After progression on conventional treatment options, some patients with advanced ACC are offered experimental Phase I therapies. The outcomes of these patients have not yet been formally evaluated. This study aims to describe the experience of refractory ACC patients treated on Phase I clinical trials at the RMH.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of metastatic ACC patients consecutively treated in our Drug Development Unit bet...

Background: A previous short Synacthen test (SST) audit in our hospital (2012) showed 70% of initial SST tests were normal with 9% inappropriate requests. A new pro forma was devised whereby one of four criteria (specific symptoms, medications, previous diagnosis, and physical findings) had to be satisfied to be able to undergo a SST. Additionally, we noticed that a number of patients were probably being over-diagnosed wth adrenal insufficiency (AI) based on a single 30 min co...

Introduction: In patients with β thalassemia major (TM) The interplay between liver siderosis and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection may facilitates the progression to insulin resistance (IR) and diabetes mellitus (DM).Objectives: Many TM patients are infected with either HCV. Therefore, we aimed to explore if there is any association between DM and HCV-RNA positivity with different genotypes.Patients and methods: 148 TM patien...

GHD in adults (AGHD) is a clinical syndrome associated with lack of positive well-being, depressed mood, feelings of social isolation, decreased energy, alterations in body composition with reduced bone and muscle mass, diminished exercise performance, and cardiac capacity. These manifestations are also common in adults with beta-thalassemia major (BTM). Performing provocative testing in all patients is cumbersome and expensive. Many studies suggested that IGF1 may be used for...

Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are rare cancers originating from neuroendocrine cells. The estimated prevalence is 35 per 100,000 people per year. A comparative review was conducted at the University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) to determine the outcomes of treated neuroendocrine patients.Methods: Patients were identified via pharmacy records of Lanreotide, from April 2009 – March 2018. Clinical data was obtained from hospital notes and histopatholog...

Background: Sarcopenia is characterised by a loss of muscle mass and function and is negatively correlated with quality of life and clinical outcomes. It may be present despite a healthy or even high body mass index (BMI). Up to a quarter of NET patients are at risk of malnutrition, which may impact treatment outcomes and length of hospital stay. Research has shown that patients with pancreatic and intestinal NETs are at higher risk of weight loss than bronchial NETs. With an ...

Background: The return to active long bone growth in puberty is a distinctly human event1 and occurs ~2 years earlier in girls compared to boys. Evolutionarily conserved networks of genes are associated with the developmental phases of childhood in multiple tissues2, implying the existence of a genetic program that controls the pubertal return to growth.Objectives: To identify biological functions associated with gender and age-rela...