Endocrine Abstracts

Objectives: Slovakia is gradually implementing health technology assessment (HTA). This method evaluated the issue of possible overuse of laboratory and imaging investigations in thyroidology for the last 10 years. The analysis being divided between 2008–2011 and 2012–2017. In this study we publish the outputs from the first stage phase.Methods: The study was conducted using data from patient records of the General Health Insurance Company, a.s...

A male patient, currently 64 years old, was diagnosed with TED (Thyroid Eye Disease) in 1993 when he underwent surgery for “exophthalmos” in both eyes (likely decompression surgery), followed by surgery to correct diplopia. He underwent a total thyroidectomy one year later. For ongoing “activity” of thyroid and TED patient received radioiodine ablation in 1995 and 1997. At that time, he also received “some pulses” of methylprednisolone and long-te...

Osteoporosis is a skeletal condition of low bone mass and increased risk of fractures and occurs most commonly in postmenopausal women. Severe osteoporosis is characterised by the presence of fragility fractures and high mortality and morbidity. We present the case of a 21-year-old female with primary hyperparathyroidism (pHP) who, despite her young age, surprisingly presented with severe osteoporosis. The 21-year-old female was hospitalised due to a recurrent flare of Still&#...

Background: Despite obligatory iodination of salt in the Czech Republic, pregnant women with higher demands on iodine intake may be at risk of iodine deficiency with potentially negative consequences for the course of pregnancy and foetal development. Determination of urinary iodine concentration (UIC) is a conventional but not widely available method used to estimate the iodine status. Based on previous studies, serum thyroglobulin (Tg) could serve as a more convenient marker...

Introduction: With the advent of specific gene targeted therapies for advanced thyroid cancers it has become important that molecular genetic testing is requested to identify patients suitable for these treatments, for example with BRAF, RET or NTRK inhibitors. We investigated the proportion of patients with advanced thyroid cancer in a specialist thyroid cancer clinic who had undergone appropriate testing.Participants and Method...

Objective: Saturated fatty acids (FAs), e.g. stearic acid (SA), induce apoptosis in pancreatic β-cells while unsaturated FAs, e.g. oleic acid (OA) have nearly no detrimental effect. Moreover, unsaturated FAs are capable of inhibiting the pro-apoptotic effect of saturated FAs. Hypoxia is also known to have deleterious effects on β-cell function and viability. In the present study, we have tested the modulatory effect of hypoxia on the effect of FAs on the growth and v...

Background: A 59 year old woman presented with recurrent symptoms of catecholamine excess (episodic headache and sweating). She was initially diagnosed in another centre to have a right adrenal phaeochromocytoma in 2002. She had suggestive symptoms, elevated urine catecholamines and a right adrenal mass on CT Adrenals. MIBG was however negative and they had proceeded with a right adrenalectomy and histology confirmed a phaeochromocytoma. She also had type 2 DM, anxiety and deg...

A 45 year old man was referred to endocrinology with increasing weakness, lethargy, loss of libido and erectile dysfunction. Initial investigations showed hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism with testosterone 0.8 nmol/l (8.2–32.2), FSH <1 U/l, LH<1 U/l, SHBG 93 nmol/l and secondary hypothyroidism with TSH 1.65 mU/l, FT3 2.1 pmol/l FT4 9 pmol/l, prolactin 180 mU/l, IGF-1 12.5 nmol/l. Short synACTHen test showed normal adrenal response (692 to 1014 nmol/l) with a higher ...

Introduction: Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN2) is an autosomal dominant disorder with an estimated prevalence of 1 per 30,000 in the general population. MEN2 is subclassified into two distinct syndromes: types 2A (MEN2A) and 2B (MEN2B). MEN2A and 2B are inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern with very high penetrance. In both syndromes, there is an occurrence of multicentric tumour formation in all organs where the RET proto-oncogene is expressed.<p ...

Introduction: The most common cause of loss of adequate substitution on a stable dose of replacement therapy is noncompliance. Impaired absorption and weight gain are also possible. We present a rare case of renal loss of thyroxin in severe nephritic syndrome.Case report: We present a 46 year old female after total thyroidectomy for Graves-Basedow disease. From 2005 she was euthyroid on a stable dose of L-thyroxin (100 μg/day). On phy...