Endocrine Abstracts

Background: All children with Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) should have a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan performed as standard (GH Research Society, 2000).Aims: To determine whether all patients diagnosed with GHD as determined by stimulation testing had an MRI scan performed; and to examine the relationship between the results of endocrine investigations and MRI scans.Methods: Retrospective review of all children who had ...

Introduction: Cancers that metastasise to the pituitary gland are unusual. The clinical manifestations of these can be varied making the diagnosis challenging. The most common cancers that metastasise to the pituitary are breast and lung which together account for more than two-thirds of cases. There have been reports of other types of cancers metastasising to the pituitary but these are rare. Case An 86 year old female with a previous history of a laparotomy for Duke’s C...

Introduction: Ischaemic heart disease occurs seven times more frequently in women with Turner syndrome (TS) than the normal population. Adult TS subjects have raised serum cholesterol (Ch). In our service we measure Ch, apolipoprotein A1 (APA) and B (APB) annually in TS patients aged >5 years as APB:APA in childhood is a strong predictor of cardiovascular risk in adult life. Little is known about lipid profiles or the effects of GH or oestrogen (E2) in childhood...

Introduction: Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) are synthetic insulin-sensitizing drugs used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. They work as agonists of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARg). TZDs action via PPARg does not exclude independent PPARg-activation effects. Our research group has recently reported that TZDs also execute direct effects implicated in glucose homeostasis. However, its mitochondrial action PPARg-independent has not been fully studied yet.<...

Background and aims: Ghrelin is the only known peripheral hormone, which increases food intake. It is released from the stomach and is thought to function as a meal initiator and signal of energy deficit. We used bacterial artificial chromosome transgenesis to generate a mouse model with increased ghrelin expression and production in stomach and brain. These mice exhibited increased circulating bioactive ghrelin and as expected were hyperphagic and glucose intolerant. We hypot...

Introduction: The aetiology of obesity-related nephropathy (ORN) is uncertain but may involve hyperfiltration and systemic inflammation.Aims: To define ORN using novel urinary biomarkers that can identify damage to specific regions of the nephron.Methods: Clinical data, blood and urine samples were collected from a consecutive series of 22 patients attending a weight-management clinic (excluding those with diabetes), and from a con...

Background: Autoimmune thyroid disease is a common cause of thyroid dysfunction, either Graves’ disease causing hyperthyroidism or Hashimoto’s thyroiditis causing hypothyroidism. It has been noted that patients suffering from autoimmune hypothyroidism can transform to hyperthyroidism and vice versa. We report the case of a patient with long standing autoimmune hypothyroidism presenting with active thyroid eye disease and subsequently diagnosed with Graves’ disea...

Background and Aim: Turner’s syndrome (TS) or 45 XO is a condition in which a female is partly or completely missing an X chromosome. TS affects 0.025–0.05% of females and can involve multiple organs through all stages of life, necessitating a multidisciplinary approach to care. We aim to evaluate our practice compared to the clinical practice guidelines, which recommends the following: annual BMI, blood pressure, HbA1c, lipid profile, liver function, thyroid functio...

Background: Hypertension is common in adults with Turner Syndrome (TS) but less is known about hypertension in children with TS.Aim: To determine the frequency of hypertension in a contemporary paediatric TS cohort and to assess its association with clinical characteristics.Patients and methods: Preliminary analysis of 22 girls with TS attending a designated TS clinic at RHC, Glasgow, with at least 2 blood pressure measurements in ...

Introduction: Recently, the factory calibrated FreeStyle Libre (FSL) flash glucose monitoring system has been introduced for use in patients with diabetes mellitus. We assessed the accuracy of FSL compared to the finger prick capillary blood glucose (CBG) over a 2 week period in patients with congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) and assessed the parents’ experience of using FSL.Methods: About 346 episodes of CBG along with corresponding swipe FSL readin...