Endocrine Abstracts

Poor hormonal and tumour responses to somatostatin analogues (SSA) in acromegaly can occur although the aetiology is often unclear. Two genetic syndromes are associated with relative SSA resistance: acromegaly due to AIP mutations (AIPmut) and the newly described X-linked acrogigantism (X-LAG) syndrome due to chromosome Xq26.3 microduplications. We studied whether SSA resistance in these conditions was related to somatostatin receptor (SSTR) levels in tumour tissues. We studie...

Objective: Adrenal insufficiency is the clinical manifestation of deficient production or action of glucocorticoids, with or without mineralocorticoids deficiency and adrenal androgens. The mortality of untreated adrenal insufficiency reaches up to 80% in 2 years. Moreover, the symptom is non-specific like malaise, dizziness. Therefore, history taking, prompt diagnosis and management are more important. The diagnostic investigation, although well established, can be challengin...

Angiogenesis is a crucial physiological phenomenon in female reproductive cycle. Our previous studies have shown that progesterone could inhibit proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) through a p53-dependent mechanism, by which the levels of p21 and p27 protein were increased, subsequently inhibiting the CDK2 kinase activity, and finally impaired the transition of the cell from the G1 phase to the S phase. While previous studies had clearly demonstrate...

Background: Evaluation of plantar pressure is useful for detecting functional abnormality of foot, especially in diabetic patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate plantar pressure and force in diabetic patients using Tekscan F-Scan in-shoe foot force and gait analysis system.Methods: Plantar pressure and force were measured by selecting an area of interest under the six areas of the foot: hallux, first metatarsal, second metatarsal, 3–5 metat...

Background: Thyroid carcinoma has increased annually. Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common thyroid malignancy and thought to have favourable prognosis. Distant metastases are common in lungs and bones. However, brain metastases are rare and its prognosis is unfavourable. Here we reported a case of solitary brain metastases of PTC mimicking cavernous angioma in a 76-year-old woman patient.Methods: We collected her data retrospectively....

We measured chromogranin A (CgA) and chromogranin B (CgB) in 36 patients, recently confirmed to have a midgut carcinoid tumour (MGC), prior to the commencement of octreotide treatment. Blood samples were taken before and after a bolus injection of 50 μg octreotide. There were 21 males, 15 females, age range 28–76 median 61 years.Basal CgA, expressed as times the upper limit of normal (ULN) ranged from 333.3 to 0.5 ULN. Basal CgB ranged from 33....

The distinct roles of estrogen receptors (ERs) related with androgen receptors (ARs) have been proposed in prostate cancer, while the involvement of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) has been reported in prostate cancer progression. We examined that TGF-β signaling pathway is associated with ER signaling in LNCaP prostate cancer cells, which express ERα and ERβ, and ARs. We determined whether the exposure to phthalate may induce the prostate cancer ...

In the present study, we determined whether two endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), triclosan (TCS) and octylphenol (OP), are able to alter the expression of two cell cycle regulators, cyclin D1 and p21, in both in vitro and in mouse breast cancer models. In addition, we determined whether the stimulatory effects of OP or TCS on breast cancer progression may be associated with an estrogen receptor (ER)-mediated signaling pathway. Altered expressions of cyclin D1 an...

Background: At diagnosis of diabetes is a critical time in the life course of diabetes. This a critical time for patient take on knowledge and using it (ref). Utilisation of this information is suboptimal due to logistical factors such as ward environment, time constraints of staff, psychological impact of the diagnosis. Current models of education are mainly didactic with limited impact in some patients.Aims: In collaboration with demontfort design unit...

Addison’s disease is most commonly caused by autoimmune adrenalitis. But, adrenal tuberculosis is still major cause in developing countries, that usually caused by hematogenous spread of pulmonary tuberculosis. Systemic tuberculosis causing Addison’s disease has been rarely reported. We present a case of Addison’s disease caused by systemic disseminated tuberculosis which was mimicked as lymphoma on F-18 FDG PET-CT (PET-CT).Sixty eight-yea...