Endocrine Abstracts

A 33-year-old lady reported a 6 months history of sweating and worsening palpitations especially after taking sotalol. She had a history of congenital heart disease (double inlet left ventricle, pulmonary valvular stenosis, ventricular septal defect, and Fontan connection surgery at 18 years); Blue Bleb Syndrome with chronic gastrointestinal blood loss, and recurrent pulmonary emboli. She required long-term warfarin treatment and regular blood transfusions. She was found to ha...

Macroprolactin, a circulating complex of monomeric prolactin together with an autoantibody, is commonly encountered in the course of endocrine investigations. It is generally agreed macroprolactin exhibits reduced bioactivity in vivo since individuals who harbour the complex do not demonstrate the classic clinical signs or symptoms characteristic of true hyperprolactinaemia. The aim of this study was to compare the relative potency of purified preparations of macroprolactin to...

Where screening for macroprolactin takes place, laboratories routinely rely on treatment of sera with polyethylene glycol (PEG) to distinguish macroprolactinaemia from true hyperprolactinaemia. However, PEG is incompatible with a number of common immunoassay platforms. The aim of this study was to assess the specificity and clinical utility of ultrafiltration as an alternative procedure for removal of bio-inactive prolactin IgG complexes such as macroprolactin from serum prior...

Macroprolactin has reduced bioactivity and accumulates in the sera of some subjects, resulting in apparent hyperprolactinaemia. Development of the polyethyleneglycol (PEG) precipitation technique has enabled large-scale screening for macroprolactin in hyperprolactinaemic subjects. We have reviewed the experience of routine screening for macroprolactin using PEG precipitation over a 54-month period in a single centre.Plasma levels of prolactin exceeded 50...

The capacity of the adrenal to produce steroids is controlled in part through the transcriptional regulation of steroid enzymes. Steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1), an orphan nuclear receptor is thought to be central to the transcriptional regulation of all steroid hydroxylase enzymes. Recently co-regulatory proteins have been implicated in the modulation of nuclear receptor transcriptional activity. We hypothesised that classic and novel secretogogues, including forskolin, angiote...

Since the thyroid is diffusely active in Graves' disease (GD) but exhibits focal activity in toxic nodular goitre (TNG), we tested the hypothesis that hypothyroidism will occur more frequently following radioactive iodine treatment (RAI), in patients with GD compared to those with TNG. To do this we reviewed the outcome of treatment in 86 patients, age 49.7 plus/minus 1.5 years (mean plus/minus SEM), with GD, and 77 patients, age 62.7 plus/minus 1.3 years, with TNG, followed o...

Aim: To evaluate whether a prospective randomised controlled trial of intensive lifestyle intervention delivered on a monthly out-patient basis can result in reduced cardiovascular risk, and improved quality of life in obese patients with type 2 diabetes.Patients and Methods: Patients were recruited from diabetes out-patient clinics. All subjects underwent a treadmill exercise test to assess eligibility before randomization. Subjects with a negative exer...

Sixty-six patients with type 2 diabetes, obesity and no known history of cardiovascular disease were recruited to a lifestyle-intervention study. The aims of this study were to quantify the presence of silent and symptomatic ischaemia using a Bruce protocol treadmill-test, and to identify factors associated with a positive stress-test in these patients. Ethical approval was obtained from the local ethics committee.54/66 patients had blood pressure (BP) g...

In contrast to bone formation biomarkers, reliable bone resorption biomarkers have not been available in serum. Recently, automated measurement of C-terminal cross-linking telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX-I), has been promoted as a reliable indicator of bone resorption. The objective of the study was to examine the correlation of CTX-I, with the traditional urinary markers, N-telopeptide of type I collagen (NTX-I) and deoxypyridinoline (DPD) in a series of patients with Pag...

Measurement of the various available bone formation and resorption markers provide insights into different aspects of the bone metabolism process. Interpretation of bone biomarkers in a clinical setting is complex. Analysis of formation markers including bone alkaline phosphatase, procollagen type 1 propeptide and intact osteocalcin and resorption markers including free deoxypyridinoline and N-terminal cross-linking telopeptide of type 1 collagen were performed. From the inter...