Endocrine Abstracts

Background and aims: Neuroactive steroids and their metabolites play an important regulatory role in the nervous system affecting the neuronal plasticity, stress response, learning, and memory. The aim of the study was to compare the steroid metabolome in AD patients and controls.Materials and methods: The study comprised of 48 AD patients (30 women and 18 men; age 73.8±9.54 years) and 33 matched controls (22 women and 11 men; age 68.2±5.94 yea...

Background: We have previously demonstrated that the natriuretic peptides BNP and NT-proBNP rise with ascent to high altitude (HA). Both peptides are classically markers of congestive cardiac failure but have also recently been found to be associated with pulmonary hypertension at sea-level (SL). As pulmonary hypertension is central to the risk of high altitude pulmonary oedema we aimed to establish if there was any association between high pulmonary artery systolic pressure (...

Background: Military personnel on operational deployment commonly lose weight despite the adequate supply of rations. Moderate weight loss (~5% body mass) occurred during the initial phase of a 6-month deployment to Afghanistan without affecting physical fitness. Reasons for this weight loss are presently unknown. We sought to establish whether changes in appetite regulatory hormones contribute to the observed weight loss.Methods: Body mass and body comp...

Background: Military training has been associated with changes in the hypothalamic–pituitary–testicular axis that are consistent with central hypogonadism (fall in testosterone, LH and FSH concentrations). The effects on the hypothalamic–pituitary–testicular axis of deployment to a combat zone are not known. The aim of this study was to clarify this situation.Methods: Military personnel were investigated pre-deployment (Pre-) and foll...

Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is the tool of choice for evaluating thyroid nodules but there is a significant percentage of insufficient or indeterminate aspirates and falsely reassuring results have been reported in up to 6% of cases.We aimed to examine our experience with FNAB among a large cohort of unselected patients with thyroid nodules.239 consecutive patients (211 women) underwent FNA of a thyroid nodule between July...

Materials and methods: Paired AbSc and Om AT were collected from patients undergoing elective liposuction surgery (Age; 45±1.72 years; lean BMI; 22.91±0.56 kg/m2; obese BMI; 33.51±1.04 kg/m2; n=23) for gene expression analysis by microarray and real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Fasted blood was taken to measure metabolic parameters.Results: Microarray data showed that Om AT had signi...

South Asian people have a lower threshold for obesity related complications than Caucasians and as a result have a higher risk of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) for a given BMI. Premature biological ageing, assessed by reduction in telomere length (TL), may be mediated by factors resulting from altered metabolic profiles associated with obesity and insulin resistance. We therefore hypothesised that IR is associated with altered metabolic profiles and t...

Visfatin, a novel adipocytokine preferentially expressed in omental (Om) adipose tissue (AT), has been shown to exert insulin-mimetic effects in mice and humans. Recent studies in Asian populations show elevated serum visfatin levels in subjects with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), suggesting a potential role for visfatin in the pathogenesis of this disease. Whilst central adiposity is closely related to IR and T2DM, the role of AT in the development of these conditions remai...

The relationship between serum TSH and thyroid autoantibodies is frequently used to classify thyroid disease both overt and subclinical. Further debate has centred on the validity of the cutoff point for serum TSH elevation (generally between 4-5 mU/l) which it has been suggested is inappropriately high. The significance of the presence of thyroid autoantibodies (hereafter termed antibody positivity) in extrathyroidal disease is unclear but an increased prevalence has been rep...

BackgroundMost thyroid nodules are benign, but therefore it is crucial to correctly stratify the malignancy risk of nodules to avoid unnecessary invasive procedures and/or surgery, but and still identify aggressive tumors. The aim of our study was to address the potential for improvement of malignancy detection in routine clinical setting using clinical examination, risk stratification of thyroid nodules on ultrasound using the American College of Radiol...