Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology

ea0006ds4 | Hypertension | SFE2003

Genetics: Polymorphisms linking hypertension and type 2 diabetes

Walker M

Hypertension is a common feature of patients with type 2 diabetes, and contributes to the markedly increased risk of cardiovascular disease associated with the diabetic state. Both hypertension and type 2 diabetes are features of the Insulin Resistance Syndrome. Susceptibility genes for the development of the Insulin Resistance Syndrome could contribute to the close association between hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Support for this concept comes from the identification of ...

ea0005s34 | Fatigue. Is it Endocrinology? | BES2003

Management of chronic fatigue

LLewelyn M

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) comprises a number of symptoms which include fatigue, headaches, poor concentration, muscle and joint pains and sleep disturbance. The first working case definition was formulated by the Centres for Disease Control in 1988, and two modifications have been published - a British definition in 1991 and a second American definition in 1994. The most important factor in all definitions is severe fatigue. The British definition requires that both menta...

ea0005s36 | Fatigue. Is it Endocrinology? | BES2003

Psychiatry and chronic fatigue

Sharpe M

Case DefinitionPsychiatrists, probably because of their experience with poorly understood and symptom-defined conditions have had a major role in generating workable definitions for clinically significant idiopathic fatigue. This is currently termed chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Although the working definitions of chronic fatigue syndrome have been valuable in achieving comparability of resarch studies, their validity must not be over stated. There is overlap between CFS...

ea0005s49 | Alternative Careers for Endocrine Researchers | BES2003

Clinical biochemistry

Parsons M

Clinical Biochemistry is the science concerned with changes in the composition of blood and other body fluids, to aid the diagnosis of disease and monitor therapy. Clinical Scientists (Clinical Biochemists) and medical graduates (Chemical Pathologists) carry out complex and unusual analytical work and are responsible for the provision, appropriate use and development of the service. This can involve research to develop and implement new techniques, liaison with clinicians to a...

ea0005p47 | Clinical Case Reports | BES2003

The UK national acromegaly database

Carson M

The low incidence of acromegaly makes it difficult for any individual centre to gather prospective data on a large enough series of patients to enable satisfactory epidemiological and other research to take place. In 1998, eight centres agreed to set up a collaborative database with a view to accumulating a major series covering the main treatment centres. The project has now been active for several years and there are currently seventeen participating centres. Any centre that...

ea0004s22 | Journal of Endocrinology Symposium: Young Innovations - Society for Endocrinology Research Fellows Update | SFE2002

TRUNCATED CYTOKINE RECEPTORS AND GH ANTAGONISTS: SIGNALLING AND TRAFFICKING

Maamra M

Common features for cytokine receptors are the presence of truncated receptors and production of soluble receptor. mRNAs encoding truncated growth hormone and leptin receptors (GHR and ObR) have been detected. The truncated GHR1-279 has a dominant negative action on the full-length receptor (GHRfl). GH is internalised very rapidly by cells expressing GHRfl. In contrast, the GHR1-279 showed delayed and reduced internalisation of GH. This could explain its dominant negative acti...

ea0004s27 | The impact of thyroid eye disease on body image | SFE2002

Surgical intervention

Beaconsfield M

Thyroid ophthalmopathy can be, in moderate to severe cases, very disfiguring and thereby soul destroying. Even with excellent family support it is difficult to accept such changes in appearance. In the severe acute phase, management is usually non-surgical with medication and/or fractionated orbital radiotherapy. Rarely, orbital decompression is required to save failing sight resulting from optic nerve compression. This surgical procedure is nowadays more commonly performed to...

ea0004ds1 | PPARgamma - Living up to expectations? | SFE2002

PPARgamma - LIVING UP TO EXPECTATIONS?

Gurnell M

It is less than a decade since the nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARg) was first cloned, yet it has become one of the most extensively studied family members, implicated in a wide array of physiological and pathological processes ranging from adipocyte differentiation to lipid trafficking in macrophages and thyroid neoplasia. This receptor is therefore considered a key target for therapeutic modulation, as exemplified by the novel antidiab...

ea0004ds9 | Treatment of insulin resistance or post-prandial hyperglycaemia - contrasting evidence | SFE2002

THE EVIDENCE OF THE VALUE OF POSTPRANDIAL BLOOD GLUCOSE LOWERING MEDICATION

Davies M

Treatments of hyperglycaemia have mostly focussed on targeting fasting glucose. These include Metformin, most sulphonylureas and conventional insulin therapy and, more recently, the glitazones. However, management of postprandial hyperglycaemia in day-to-day practice in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes is now becoming clinically relevant for a number of reasons.There is now robust evidence in women with gestational diabetes that specifically targeting pos...

ea0003s6 | Hormonal Control of Female Reproduction | BES2002

Transgenic models to study ovarian folliculogenesis and oogenesis

Matzuk M

It is now possible to modify the mouse genome to generate strains of mice with precise genetic mutations. Over 50 strains of mutant mice have now been produced in which there is an alteration in female fertility (Elvin and Matzuk, Reviews of Reproduction, 1998). For example, we have shown that a knockout of the oocyte-specific TGF-beta family member, growth differentiation factor-9 (GDF-9), results in a block at the primary follicle stage (Dong et al., Nature, 1996; Carabatso...