Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Covid 19 infection has previously been reported to be associated with worsening of pre-existing and new onset diabetes mellitus1. However, the association of new onset autoimmune diabetes mellitus after Covid vaccination is not fully recognised in the literature.History: We report the case of a 58-year-old healthy woman who received a Covid 19 vaccination on 14th of Nov 2021. 2 weeks subsequently she was admitted with headache, blurred vision...

Introduction: Hyperprolactinaemia is a common finding in endocrine practice and can be due to a number of causes. The degree of elevation of prolactin levels may sometimes be helpful in distinguishing between underlying aetiology.Aim: To determine if hyperprolactinaemia is correlated with clinical diagnosis in a cohort of patients in the endocrine service at a tertiary centre.Methods: A biochemistry database held at University Hosp...

Section 1: Case history: A 57-year-old female shop assistant presented with a four week history of increasing thirst and lethargy. The patient also reported non-specific pain in her shoulders, ribs and hips. She was otherwise well with no past medical history. Systemic enquiry was unremarkable. On examination nothing abnormal was noted. Specifically there were no rashes, lymphadenopathy or hepatosplenomegaly. Joint examination was normal and there was no muscle tenderness or w...

Abstract: The most commonly used techniques to measure vitamin D are automated immunoassays, which are known to be affected by interferences, especially from immunoglobulins present in the patient’s serum. We present a case of a patient with IgA myeloma in whom interference with the vitamin D assay was identified. An 76-year-old male, known to have: ischemic heart disease, atrial fibrillation, COPD, type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and hypertension was referred to the Endocrinolo...

Background: The Mediterranean diet (MD) is the traditional diet of the people living in the Mediterranean basin and has been linked with positive health outcomes e.g. reduced incidence of cardiovascular and neoplastic disease. No study has investigated the relationship between the MD and glycaemic control in a Mediterranean population with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Furthermore, it is unknown how well controlled are such patients and whether they follow the MD.<p cla...

Acylation stimulating protein (ASP) synthesis occurs through the interaction between complement C3, factor B and adipsin in adipose tissue. ASP demonstrates potent lipogenic effects that are modulated by sex hormones in vivo and in vitro. In this study, an ex vivo investigation was carried out to analyse expression of genes related to ASP production and function. Adipose tissue was harvested from ovariectomized rats (n=6), and treated with s...

Current guidance recommends replacing vitamin D in patients with mild primary hyperparathyroidism although there are reports of worsening hypercalcaemia in some patients. Vitamin D replacement has also been known to cause hypercalcaemia in patients with sarcoidosis. We present a case of a patient with co-existent sarcoidosis and primary hyperparathyroidism, who developed severe hypercalcaemia following treatment with high dose Vitamin D.A 63 year old lad...

Osteocytes differentiate from osteoblasts, are embedded in mineralised matrix and are critical regulators of bone remodelling. In vitro osteocyte models are currently limited to cell lines in monolayer, but these do not represent their 3D environment in vivo. We have recently shown that osteoblasts in 3D gels differentiate along the osteocytic pathway. Since retinoic acid (RA) has been shown to stimulate monolayer osteoblast/osteocyte differentiation, we have inv...

Childhood hypothyroidism results in delayed skeletal maturation and impaired growth. Thyroid hormones act via thyroid hormone receptors α (TRα) and TRβ which are tempo-spatially regulated. In the skeleton, TRα is the predominant receptor, thus we hypothesise that the skeletal effects of hypothyroidism are mediated by TRα. To investigate this we assessed the response of wild type (wt), TRα knockout (TRα0/0) and TRβ knockout (TR...

Introduction: The telephone endocrine clinic (TEC) was established as an adjunct to the face-to-face endocrine clinic to follow and monitor the progress in a selected group of patients after they were seen in main endocrine clinics. This model of care has been tried successfully in other specialities but not as widespread in endocrinology. We audited the effectiveness of TEC and patient satisfaction. Methods: A retrospective analysis of records of all patients contacted in TEC...