Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Diabetes increases the risk of developing coronary heart disease irrespective of glycaemic control. Cortisol and growth hormone (GH) abnormalities have been found in these patients and have been proposed as possible mechanisms for this increased risk.Regular exercise, through an unknown mechanism, can modify cardiovascular risk and so prevent or delay the progression of coronary heart disease. In this study we assessed whether an exercise program would a...

Thyroid lymphoma accounts for <5% of thyroid malignancies. Although it predominantly arises on a background of autoimmune thyroid disease (Hashimoto's thyroiditis), the mode of presentation, diagnosis and outcome are not well characterised.We retrospectively analysed 25 patients presenting with thyroid lymphoma between 1996-2002. Patients were predominantly female (84%) with a mean age of 65yrs and presented with a rapidly growing goitre. A previous h...

Wegeners granulomatosis involving the pituitary is rare, only a few cases having been reported. Most cases, diagnosed histologically or by response to treatment affect the posterior pituitary and occur in the presence of systemic vasculitis.A histological diagnosis of Wegeners granulomatosis was made in a 51 yr. old female in 1994 after presentation with upper respiratory tract symptoms and collapse of her nasal septum and bridge. At this time, gonadotr...

We describe a case of chronic hypokalaemia secondary to Gitelman's syndrome. A 17 year female presented with a 1 year history of lethargy, muscle cramps and intermittent generalised abdominal pain. She took no regular medications and had no significant past medical history or family history. She was normotensive with a significant hypokalaemic, metabolic alkalosis. Sodium=135mmol/l, potassium=2.7mmol/l, creatinine=75micromol per litre, bicarbonate=36mmol/l. The hypokalaemia pe...

Xanthoma Disseminatum: A rare cause of hypopituitarismS Ray and PE Belchetz; The General Infirmary at Leeds, Leeds, UK.Xanthoma disseminatum (XD) is a rare, benign, normo-lipaemic condition characterised by non- Langerhan's cell histiocytosis which usually effects male children or young adults. Patients develop nodular or infiltrating papules that are distributed along flexural areas and mucosal surfaces. Meningeal infiltration ca...

A 20 year of man with cerebral palsy (spastic diplegia and mild learning difficulties) initially presented to the neurologists with a 4 month history of deterioration in mobility and new difficulties in speech, swallowing and incontinence of urine. New proximal muscle weakness, dyskinesia and ataxia were noted bilaterally in all limbs, Myoclonic jerks and absence seizures were also seen. His swallowing deteriorated to the point where 'PEG' feeding was necessary. Exhaustive neu...

Up to 90% of patients treated with radioactive iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism develop hypothyroidism, in some cases many years after treatment. The majority of patients receiving RI in our clinic were referred from clinics throughout the northwest of England and attend on one occasion for RI treatment with follow-up by the referring physician. The Royal College of Physicians guidelines recommend centres administering RI have a system for regular patient monitoring to ide...

The gonadotrophin hormones comprise a common alpha subunit and a hormone specific beta subunit and their expression profiles differ during pituitary ontogeny. The transcriptional regulatory cascade that is required to mediate this is largely unknown. However, perturbation of the expression of homeodomain transcription factors, Paired-like homeodomain transcription factor 1 (Pitx1) and Homeobox gene expressed in embryonic stem cells 1 (Hesx1) disparately affects gonadotrophin g...

The pregnancy associated plasma proteins (PAPP) -A, -B, -C and -D were first isolated from pregnancy serum in 1974. Since, these proteins have been re-characterised; PAPP-B and PAPP-C are now known as pregnancy-specific beta-1 glycoproteins and PAPP-D as placental lactogen. PAPP-A was subsequently found to be a member of the metzincins family of metalloproteases. Recently we have identified a full-length cDNA encoding the preproprotein of pregnancy associated plasma protein-E ...

Thyroid abscess is a rare condition because of the thyroid gland anatomical and biochemical nature. We report a rare case of a rapidly developed thyroid abscess in the background of follicular thyroid nodule.A 77 years old lady admitted for elective right thyroidectomy. She had a history of goiter with normal TFTs. FNA cytology revealed Thy3, Hurthle cell neoplasia. The pre-operation CT scan showed right thyroid large nodule with heterogonous enhancement...