Endocrine Abstracts

Adrenal incidentalomas 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 145 consecutiv...

Since the introduction of the reduction in hours for junior doctors in 1991, nurse led clinics (NLC) have increasingly become embedded into specialist practice. Whilst some NLC such as Diabetes and Respiratory have been established for many years, in the area of Endocrinology they are a newer evolving concept.Currently there is limited research in this area. An online survey was distributed to 98 nurse members of the Society for Endocrinology. The questi...

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...

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...

Introduction: Patients with adrenal insufficiency (AI), continue to face many challenges including: dealing with symptoms and associated disorders; managing medication regimens; prevention and management of complications, and effective engagement and interactions with healthcare providers. In patients with AI, adrenal crisis (AC) continues to lead to unnecessary deaths. We illustrate how University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust used the 4E framework (En...

Background: People with Primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) were identified as a vulnerable group by the UK government during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence our aim was to evaluate the incidence of COVID-19, and associated adrenal crisis (AC) in people with PAI in the UK.Methods: A prospective observational study of patients with PAI was performed between January-June 2022. Participants were recruited via the Addison’s Disease Self Help Group. Diagnos...

Background: Although pheochromocytoma classically presents with headaches, palpitations and paroxysmal hypertension, uncommon presentations such as cardiomyopathy, stroke and subarachnoid haemorrhage have been documented. We present one such infrequent presentation of myocardial infarction with normal coronary arteries (MINOCA).Case presentation: A 79-year Caucasian female presented with central crushing chest pain radiating to left arm associated with h...

A 62-year-old Asian British female presented with increasing tiredness. She had multiple co-morbidities and was prescribed steroid inhalers for suspected asthma. Her type 2 diabetes mellitus, previously well controlled on metformin, had worsened over a short period of time (48 to 85 mmol/mol). On examination, she was obese (weight 82 kg, BMI 43 kg/m2), hypertensive (155/78 mmHg); rest of the examination was unremarkable. The blood test revealed undetectable cortisol...

The Competency Framework for Adult Endocrine Nursing was launched at the Society for Endocrinology (SfE) BES conference in March 2013 and was made available to Endocrine nurses and Endocrine centres in the UK. It was also made accessible via the SfE website. Questionnaires were sent out 6 months later to audit its use.Results: 80.4% of nurse respondents had heard of the document and 69.6% had read it. 100% of those who had read it found it easy to use an...