Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Immune mediated cases of severe insulin resistant diabetes are very rare. We report responses to immunosuppression with rituximab in two patients.Case 1: A 31 year old black African female, BMI 22.84 kg/m², was referred with new onset diabetes, diagnosed shortly following a miscarriage. She had weight loss, acanthosis nigricans, nocturnal hypoglycaemia and severe hyperandrogenism . She was on an insulin pump and required >1000 units in...

Introduction: The prevalence of acromegaly in the general population ranges 4−14/100 000. 45−80% of acromegaly patients have obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). The OSA population might represent a target group for earlier detection of acromegaly, thereby reducing associated long-term morbidity.Methods: Patients attending the sleep service (11/2014−04/2018) were recruited in a prospective multicentre cohort study. All had serum IGF-1 measur...

Poor agreement between different analytical methods measuring aldosterone concentrations impedes applicability of uniform cut-offs in the diagnostic work-up of primary aldosteronism (PA). We compared 4 analytical methods (2 immunoassays and 2 LC-MS/MS) in plasma samples before and after saline infusion test (SIT). 80 hypertensive patients underwent the standardized diagnostic work-up within the German Conn’s registry. Patients (PA n=39/non-PA n=41) were ...

Background: Sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) is a dimeric glycoprotein synthesized in, and secreted from, hepatocytes. SHBG is also expressed in, but not secreted from, the prostate, where its role is unclear. The expression of SHBG is linked to lipid metabolism, and it also modulates transport and availability of androgen. Given its expression in the prostate and role in the androgen signalling axis, we postulated that expression of SHBG will increase in prostate cancer (P...

Introduction: Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), is present in over 90% of obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery. It is a spectrum of pathology ranging from steatosis through to inflammation (Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis, NASH) and fibrosis. Bariatric surgery is currently the most effective treatment for NAFLD, but post-operative hepatic decompensation can occur and therefore pre-operative stratification of liver disease severity is beneficial. Several non-invas...

Introduction: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder, affecting 5–10% of women of reproductive age, and is the major cause of anovulatory infertility. Aberrant secretion and/or action of gonadotropins are implicated but, to date, we have only limited knowledge about the precise mechanisms involved. Recent genome wide association studies have discovered signals at loci close to the genes coding for gonadotropin receptors. The functional significanc...

Tumor-induced osteomalacia (TIO) is a rare acquired paraneoplastic syndrome clinically presenting with recurring fractures, muscular weakness and pain. Laboratory values of affected patients are characterized by renal phosphate wasting and hypophosphatemia caused by an overexpression of fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF- 23), a hormone belonging to the group of phosphatonins regulating phosphate and vitamin D homeostasis. Pathologically, it is secreted especially by small (and ...

Background: Acromegaly (Acro) is associated with adverse psychopathological and personality outcomes despite being in remission for over a decade. We hypothesised that persistently poor psychological outcomes may be associated with morphometric changes experienced by Acro patients.Methodology: We compared 60 consecutive non-functioning adenoma (NFA) and Acro patients who had undergone pituitary surgery and/or radiation therapy (RT). A gender-specific vis...

We recently developed a visual scale to assess the extent of morphometric changes in Acromegaly (Acro) patients which is strongly predictive of adverse psychological outcomes. We sought to identify if there was any association between the self-drawing test and the visual morphometric scale and if there was any correlation with psychological outcomes.We compared 60 consecutive non-functioning adenoma (NFA) and Acro patients who had undergone pituitary sur...

Aim: Gastric bypass surgery improves glycaemic control, but the underlying mechanisms including potential changes in adipoinsular axis are incompletely understood. The aim of this study was to investigate potentially causal or associated alterations in gene expression of adipokines, myokines, and hormones in the subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue of diabetic and non-diabetic obese subjects before and after gastric bypass.Material and methods: Biops...