Endocrine Abstracts

A 56-year-old male presented in 2017 with acute symptomatic hyponatraemia. He was admitted with a seizure and a plasma sodium of 112 mmol/l. His past medical history was notable for alcohol excess and smoking. The acute presentation was managed with 3% hypertonic saline infusion in ITU. Plasma osmolality was 240 mOsm/Kg, urine osmolality 327 mOsm/kg and sport urine sodium 28 mmol/l. CT TAP showed some oesophageal thickening only; endoscopy was normal. He made a good recovery f...

We report a case of malignant hemangiopericytoma in sellar region in a 73-year-old lady who initially presented with symptomatic hyponatraemia. She was found to have hypocortisolism on short synacthen test. She was treated with hydrocortisone and was found to have secondary hypothyroidism. Her gonadotropin levels were commensurate with menopause, prolactin levels were normal and there was no suggestion of diabetes insipidus. Initial pituitary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) w...

Background: Thyrotoxicosis may be associated with considerable patient morbidity. Graves’ disease (GD) and toxic multinodular goitre (TMNG) are the most common causes of thyrotoxicosis. Therapeutic options include anti-thyroid medication or definitive treatment by radioiodine or surgery. Efficacy, quality of life and cost-effectiveness are among the outcomes that have been compared between these two therapies. However, there is still no clear consensus as to which treatme...

Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) may occur in multiple sites including, the pancreas, gastrointestinal tract, lung, thymus, adrenals and pituitary, and as part of the multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) syndrome. Current treatments for advanced NETs, rarely achieve a cure due to metastases at presentation and therefore additional treatments are required. Identification of cell surface receptors or binding sites that are unique to NETs could lead to novel targeted drugs, ra...

Background/aims/method: Evaluation/management of adrenal incidentalomas (AI) is an increasingly prevalent challenge. CT/MRI characteristics may be useful in determining whether a lesion is a benign adenoma and forthcoming ESE-ENSAT guidance suggests a role for 18F-FDG-PET/CT in distinguishing benign vs malignant lesions. We have previously demonstrated the utility of 11C-metomidate (MTO), which binds CYP11B1/B2, in localising aldosterone-producing adenoma...

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (PNETs) may occur as part of the multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) syndrome or as non-familial (sporadic) tumours. PNETs, which include gastrinomas, insulinomas and non-functioning tumours occur in more than 80% of MEN1 patients and account for 50% of disease-specific deaths. This is because 25–40% of patients with PNETs will have metastasis at presentation, and current treatments, which include surgery, chemotherapy and radiothe...

TSHoma is rare, with an incidence of 1 per million, and <1% of all pituitary tumours. We reported a case involving a 49-year-old female who was first referred to our endocrine unit in 2006 with excessive lethargy and abnormal TFT’s. She was thought to have thyroid hormone resistance for several years until 2015 when she reported having persistent symptoms and further investigation suggested an alternative diagnosis.Results: Ft4=41.6 pmol/l, TSH=...

Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer in the UK. Currently there is a lack of pre-clinical models to predict patient’s response to treatment for prostate cancer. Identifying which patients will respond best to treatment avoids exposing patients to treatment side effects unnecessarily. Primary cell culture provides a translational model to predict individual patient’s response to drug treatments. In this study, we develop a technique for isolation, propagatio...

Introduction: To prevent neurological damage caused by congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI), hypoglycaemia must be avoided and treated promptly. Education of parents, carers and families of patients with CHI (PCFs) about the causes and consequences of CHI may help to reduce severity of hypoglycaemia due to earlier correction of blood glucose levels. We aimed to determine whether video animations could be used to improve understanding of CHI among PCFs, and the acceptability of thi...

Introduction: Thyroid nodules can be detected in 50 to 60% of healthy individuals, particularly in the elderly and females. An increase in differentiated thyroid cancer has been noted over the years, especially papillary thyroid cancer.Objectives: To assess different approaches to management and histological nature of thyroid nodules in Malta, as well as to evaluate the association of ultrasound characteristics with biochemical and histological features....