Endocrine Abstracts

Adrenal incidentaloma’s are a common clinical dilemma with increasing utilisation of cross-sectional imaging modalities. The aims of management include i) exclusion of possible malignancy and ii) identification of hormonally active lesions. Our unit has adopted AACE guidelines, including a screen for adrenal androgen hypersecretion. This audit aimed to review the utility of such an approach. We identified case notes of 100 consecutive adrenal incidentaloma’s referred...

Pregnancy for women with type 1 or type 2 diabetes is a high-risk time. The Atlantic diabetes in pregnancy (DIP) programme aims to provide coordinated, optimal evidence-based clinical care for women with diabetes over five hospital centres in the West of Ireland. After previously auditing pregnancy outcomes in 2008 and again in 2011 we now look at our 10-year outcomes. Changes in clinical care delivery that have occurred over that time include; the provision of dedicated combi...

Introduction: Hyonatraemia, defined as serum sodium <135 mmol/l is the commonest electrolyte abnormalities and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality.Aim: To determine the prevalence of mild, moderate, and severe Hyponatraemia in the hospitalised patients and estimate mortality between these three groups and compared to Normonatraemia.Methods: This is a retrospective audit in patients admitted to hospital from Jul...

It is recommended that patients with adrenal insufficiency should be in possession of an emergency hydrocortisone kit and have sufficient knowledge and skills to administer it. Historically, in our unit patient education was dependent on referral from Doctors to endocrine specialist nurses (ESN’s). This study sought to assess if patients owned a kit and if patients and family were competent to administer the injection if required.A ‘snapshot&#1...

A 54-year-old lady with a 27-year history of schizoaffective disorder presented with shaking episodes, polyuria and polydipsia. She was found to have a serum sodium of 157 mmol/l. Of note, she had been on lithium for several years but this had been stopped three months previously as her serum sodium was raised at 156 mmol/l.On admission her lithium level was undetectable, confirming no recent use. Serum osmolality was 343 mOsm/kg and urine osmolality 82 ...

Somatostatin analogues (SA) represent the most effective medical treatment for the control of neuroendocrine tumour (NET) symptoms, like carcinoid syndrome. Recently there has been evidence of lengthened time to tumour progression in patients with midgut carcinoid treated with octreotide. Nevertheless, a number of new therapeutic indications and the clinical effectiveness of SA for other clinical conditions are appearing. A 69-year-old man was investigated for anaemia (haemogl...

Objectives: To examine the effect on weight change of diet/lifestyle advice to maintain/achieve a healthy weight in an unselected PCOS population.Methods: All overweight patients attending the Reproductive Endocrine clinic with PCOS are routinely given lifestyle advice for weight loss by their consultant, offered referral to see a dietician and, when clinically appropriate, prescribed orlistat. Clinical notes were reviewed for 50 consecutive patients wit...

Background: Phaeochromocytomas (PHAEO) and paragangliomas (PGGL) are rare neuroendocrine tumours. The traditional ‘10%’ teaching mnemonic has recently been challenged.Methods: Clinical and biochemical/pathological data were collected prospectively. A 24-h urine sample for metanephrine assay was used for postoperative biochemical follow-up.Results: Between ‘Jan 89 and June 10’ 110 patients were operated for PHAEO...

Introduction: CT renal tract is commonly requested by the urologists for suspected renal colic as it is recognized as the most accurate technique for the detection of ureteric stones. However, follow-up of adrenal incidentalomas identified on such scans could pose a challenge for the non-endocrinologist. We investigated the prevalence and follow-up of incidentally discovered adrenal masses after CT renal colic.Methods: We looked through the reports of al...

Background: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is commonly diagnosed after the fifth decade of life. Current guidelines suggest that young patients with apparently sporadic PHPT should be screened as potential index cases for the multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN-1) syndrome.Aim: To determine the prevalence of mutations in the MEN1 gene in young patients presenting with apparently sporadic PHPT before the age of 40 years.Met...