Endocrine Abstracts

The presentation of a patient with an adrenal tumour often causes diagnostic difficulty for the endocrinologist. Adrenal tumours are rare occurrences, particularly when large in size. We present two cases, where large adrenal tumours were found in inpatients on CT scanning and discuss the difficulties which arose in each case when attempting to obtain a definitive diagnosis. Case 1 A 38 year old Bangladeshi woman was being investigated for fevers, sweats and pancytopaenia. She...

Chorionic Gonadotrophin (CG) is secreted by both horse and human placenta and is critical to maintenance of early pregnancy. Production of CG is dependent on the differentiation of specialised CG-secreting cells, binucleate (horse) and syncytiotrophoblast (human). We recently showed the transcription factor Glial Cells Missing 1 (GCM1) is rapidly induced in vivo during differentiation of equine binucleate trophoblast. Studies in human syncytiotrophoblast have shown cAMP...

Introduction: The ectopic ACTH syndrome (EAS) is associated with a variety of malignancies, mostly of (neuro-)endocrine origin. Several series report on the relative contribution of EAS in the spectrum of Cushing’s syndrome. However, information on the incidence/prevalence of EAS in the setting of patients diagnosed with thoracic or gastroenteropancreatic (GEP) neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) is virtually absent.Study design: In our tertiary academic ...

We describe the case of two patients who presented with non-mechanical bowel obstruction as a consequence of an underlying, undiagnosed Phaeochromocytoma. The first patient was referred in to the surgical team by his GP with signs and symptoms of small bowel obstruction. He described abdominal pain, distension and vomiting and had not opened his bowels for a week. The X-ray supported the clinical diagnosis and he went on to have an abdominal CT scan. The scan did not identify ...

MTC represents still a diagnostic challenge in thyroidology. A case is here reported with some misleading signs that was finally solved with a calcitonin assay.A 50 years women was referred for a thyroid nodule incidentally discovered at echography in the right lobe; it appeared round, hypoechoic, without alo sign, well-definite edges, with a diameter of 7 mm. At the first evaluation with echocolordoppler there was no appearance of intralesion vasculariz...

Ketosis-prone, Jamaica (J) type diabetes is an uncommon form of diabetes described in a sub-population of mainly Afro-Caribbean patients who often present acutely with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) but during follow up demonstrate clinical, metabolic, and immunologic features of Type II diabetes. We present such a case.A 37-year old Afro-Caribbean man with a family history of Type II diabetes presented with polyuria, polydipsia and weight loss. He was over...

Introduction: All stages of diabetic nephropathy are independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease in patients with diabetes. Intensive intervention to achieve target glycaemic control, blood pressure and cholesterol can minimise cardiovascular risk, mainly by reducing proteinuria.Aims: To compare two cohorts of patients, group A, attending a nurse-led clinic in addition to the traditional diabetes renal clinic and group B attending the latter only...

Background: Thyroid cancer commonly presents as a new palpable thyroid nodule or increase in size of a pre-existing nodule. A multidisciplinary thyroid lump clinic was established in September 2008 enabling patients to have one-stop clinical, biochemical, radiological and cytological assessment for evaluation of thyroid nodules. This audit predates this period, aiming to provide background information for future audit.Aim: To evaluate the requests for th...

Objectives: To assess current clinical practice in children aged 0–5.99 years with Type I Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM).Methods: All paediatric diabetes centres (n=17) within a single UK region were asked to provide retrospective data for the year ending 01/12/07. 15 (88%) centres responded and provided data for each child on presentation, initial and current insulin regimens. Outcome measures were HbA1c, and acute hospital admissions post-diagnos...

The classic view of sexual differentiation in mammalian species holds that sex differences in the brain and behavior develop under the influence of estrogens derived from the neural aromatization of testosterone: the brain develops as male in the presence of estrogens and as female in their absence. In agreement with this view, it has been proposed that the female brain needs to be protected from estrogens produced by the placenta and that alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) - a major fet...