Endocrine Abstracts

A recent audit of the urine steroid profile (USP) service at Glasgow Royal Infirmary (GRI) revealed that up to 25% of requests are made inappropriately, or without any clinical information. In contrast to the majority of biochemical testing, USP analysis is very labour intensive, and interpretation of results requires both quantitative and qualitative assessment of the profile. Adequate clinical information is essential to generate a complete report, as a number of steroids fo...

Background: Chromogranin A is an acidic 48 kDa glycoprotein originating from the chromaffin granules of most neuroendocrine cell types. In health chromogranin A is released as a pro-hormone together with other peptide hormones in response to stimulation. In disease larger quantities of Chromogranin A are produced by neuroendocrine derived tumours thus allowing its use as a tumour marker. Due to the different clinical scenarios for measuring Chromogranin A requesting practices ...

Background: Menopause marks the permanent cessation of periods for a woman. It is commonly associated with cognitive impairment. Oestrogens and progestins have been known to have a profound effect on the central nervous system and can exert neuroprotective effects on the cellular level. This led to the hypothesis that administration of oestrogens, progestins or a combination of both in the form of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can have a protective or therapeutic effect ag...

Background/aims: Thyroglobulin (Tg) is used for monitoring patients who have undergone total thyroidectomy (TT) and radioiodine (RAI) ablation therapy for thyroid cancer. The current method is the Siemens Immulite assay with limit of quantification of 2 ng/mL following in-house evaluation. Recent guidelines suggest the use of high sensitivity Tg (hs-Tg) as an alternative to TSH stimulated Tg levels. The aim is to evaluate the hs-Tg Beckman Access II assay with a stated functio...

Background: Coeliac disease has higher prevalence in children with diabetes mellitus than in the general population, and can have significant impact on quality of life causing faltering growth, prolonged fatigue and recurrent abdominal pain.Objective: To compare current practice in screening for coeliac disease in children with diabetes mellitus with recommended standards and to investigate the value of follow-up screening for coeliac disease in children...

Imprinted genes differ from most gene pairs in that only one gene of the pair is expressed determined by the parent they originate from. Many have been shown to play an important role in fetal growth and neurodevelopment. Most imprinted genes are found in clusters and expression is controlled by imprinting centres that contain differentially methylated regions. Monoallelic expression makes imprinted genes particularly vulnerable to naturally occurring genetic rearrangements an...

Background: • Updated guidance on management of DKA in 2020.• Main changes: &cir; Diagnostic Criteria &squf; same ketone/pH criteria but serum bicarbonate level lower (<15 mmol/l) &cir; Severity: &squf; pH <7.3 or bicarb <15=Mild DKA pH <7.2 or bicarb <10=Moderate DKA<p cla...

Short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), including propionate, are the main metabolic by-products in the fermentation of non-digestible dietary fibre by the gut microbiota. SCFAs have wide-ranging effects in vivo, and their receptors, free fatty acid receptor 2 (FFAR2) and free fatty acid receptor 3 (FFAR3), are expressed at numerous tissue sites. Sodium propionate supplementation has been shown to increase energy expenditure, induce sympathetic neuron action potentials and p...

Background: The median survival for patients with metastatic neuroendocrine tumours is greater than 5 years. Despite a heavy burden of metastatic disease and an incurable diagnosis many patients continue with a relatively normal lifestyle. Vast amounts of time and money is spent on diagnosing and treating the physical aspects of cancer but little is currently available to help with the psychological wellbeing of our patients. As NET nurses we spend large amounts of our time ta...

Background: Intranasal steroids are commonly used for allergic rhinitis, rhinosinusitis and nasal polyps as they are considered safe in terms of long-term adverse effects profile due to favourable pharmacokinetic characteristics as compared to other oral and inhaled steroids. Some are also available over the counter without prescription.Case: We report a patient with iatrogenic Cushing”s syndrome and secondary adrenal insufficiency due to chronic in...