Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Recent data suggest a reciprocal influence between bone and energy metabolism. Mediators have been identified as osteocalcin (OC), which stimulates insulin (IRI) secretion and activity and IRI as bone anabolic factor. Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) stimulates bone turnover, induces osteoporosis and is associated with increased IRI resistance. A positive relationship between OC and IRI sensitivity has been found in PHPT, but no data exist on the relationship b...

Ghrelin is expressed in endothelial cells but its precise role remains unknown. Some authors treat ghrelin as an endogenous regulator of angiogenesis.The aim of this study was to examine the direct effect of human acylated and unacylated ghrelin and rat acylated ghrelin applied alone or together with D-Lys-GHRP-6, an antagonist of ghrelin receptor type 1a, on the growth of murine endothelial cell line HECa10 assessed by Mosmann method i...

A 55-year-old gentleman was referred to surgeons for screening colonoscopy in view of family history of bowel cancer. His mother, maternal aunt and two cousins had history of bowel cancer. When seen by the surgeons, he gave 4-month history of intermittent abdominal bloating and rectal bleeding. His past medical history included a recent diagnosis of hypertension, a chronic history of facial neuralgia and history of excision of numerous facial skin tags. He was on amlodipine 5 ...

A 39-year-old man was referred to our department with an incidental finding of low blood glucose. He had presented to rheumatology with non-traumatic left knee pain and swelling. He had a longstanding history of obstructive sleep apnoea and hiatus hernia. He had not been taking any medications. Examination was unremarkable apart from tender left knee with an effusion. A diagnosis of reactive arthritis was made. An incidental finding of low blood glucose (2.7 mmol/l-normal 3.4&...

A 41-year-old female was diagnosed with generalised seizures in 1984 and her EEG showed excess slow wave activity in the temporal region. She was commenced on carbamazepine. In 2005 she was diagnosed to have a bipolar affective disorder for which olanzapine was added.She was found to be hypocalcaemic with corrected calcium of 2.08 mmol/l in 2005 after sustaining a right undisplaced distal radial fracture following a seizure. She was empirically commenced...

A 75-year-old gentleman was admitted with symptoms of lethargy, abdominal pain, severe nausea and vomiting in January 2008. He had solid transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder, diagnosed in May 2005, when he initially presented with microscopic haematuria. He had further undergone radical cystoprostatectomy and an ileal conduit. The histology showed aggressive tumour (G3pT3a) with vascular invasion but no metastasis. Follow-up CT scans done 9 months later showed a 3.5 cm l...

Case: A 44-year-old lady was diagnosed with Acromegaly (IGF-1 of 1315 ng/ml, prolactin 498 mu/l). She was also thyrotoxic clinically and biochemically with T4 29 pmol/l (normal 9-26), total T3 3.24 nmol/l (normal 0.9–2.2) but high TSH of 3.50 mu/l (normal 0.35–3.5). Further work-up with TRH testing and α-subunit measurement confirmed a TSHoma. Pituitary MRI scan showed a macroadenoma displacing optic chiasm and extending into cavernous sinu...

Introduction: The insulin stress test (IST) used to assess the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) and growth hormone axes requires blood glucose to fall below 2.5 mmol/l. This level of hypoglycaemia is considered safe for selected patients but blood glucose levels below this are associated with increasing risk. We reviewed the depth and length of hypoglycaemia in a cohort of patients undergoing IST.Method: Between October 2004 and 2008, 138 I...

A 26-year-old Caucasian female presented with nausea, intermittent abdominal pain and amenorrhoea of 3 months duration. She was known to have Von Hippel–Lindau disease (Exon 3A/T 742 mutation) and had undergone surgery for cerebellar haemangioblastoma. She also had presumed dermoid cyst in right ovary which had been monitored by ultrasound. Ultrasound revealed an increase in size and vascularity of right ovarian cyst. MRI scan revealed it to be a 6.3 cm lobulated mass in ...

Selenium (Se) has been shown to capture radicals, one of which is oxygen originating from thyroxin-peroxidase (TPO) activity. Se supplementation to patients with Hashimoto’s resulted in a decrease of anti-TPO-titers and Se concentrations of ≥1.4 μmol/l have been proven to prevent deterioration of post partum thyreoiditis. Our group previously showed that in nonpregnant women with Hashimoto’s Se concentrations were decreased, and pregnant women have decreas...