Endocrine Abstracts

In most species progesterone acts to inhibit cervical ripening and myometrial contractility throughout pregnancy and labour is heralded by prostaglandin stimulated withdrawal of progesterone. Human labour is associated with increased prostaglandin synthesis, via COX-2 but there is no clear systemic withdrawal of progesterone at the time of labour. There is upregulation of genes which are normally repressed by progesterone leading to the concept that human labour is associated ...

The majority of patients with thyroid eye disease (TED) improve spontaneously without any specific intervention. Some have acute sight-threatening complications and most are left with significant disfigurement. Numerous medical treatments have been tried and most do not work. Steroids and orbital irradiation are helpful in some cases, but neither has a major impact on appearance. All patients with TED deserve consideration for rehabilitative reconstructive surgery. The role of...

Abstract unavailable...

Patients with Cushing's syndrome emphasize the importance of cortisol in regulating body fat mass and distribution, bone mineral density and intraocular pressure. However, patients with the prevalent diseases, obesity, osteoporosis and glaucoma, invariably have normal circulating cortisol concentrations. We have focussed on the concept of 'pre-receptor' metabolism as a mechanism of modulating the action of cortisol in a tissue-specific fashion. Two isozymes of 11b-hydroxystero...

Paul Stewart, Division of Medical Sciences, University of Birmingham, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, UK AbstractBorn in Harrogate in 1959, Paul received his undergraduate medical training at Edinburgh University. His house officer and senior house officer posts were undertaken at the Royal Infirmary and Western General Hospital Edinburgh, and it was here that his interest in endocrinology was kindled, largely th...

Clinical observations on patients with Cushing's syndrome highlight the importance of cortisol in regulating blood pressure and body fat mass. However, most patients with hypertension and obesity have normal circulating cortisol concentrations. We have focussed on the concept of 'pre-receptor' metabolism as a mechanism of modulating the action of cortisol in a tissue-specific fashion. Two isozymes of 11b-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11b-HSD) catalyse the interconversion of ac...

Paul Stewart, University of Birmingham, UK AbstractBorn in Harrogate in 1959, Paul received his undergraduate Medical training at Edinburgh University. His house officer and senior house officer posts were undertaken at the Royal Infirmary and Western General Hospital Edinburgh, and it was here that his interest in endocrinology was kindled, largely thanks to the clinical skills and mentorship of Christopher Edwards a...

The cephalochordates (amphioxus) are the closest living invertebrate relatives of vertebrates, and have proved extremely useful for understanding the evolution of vertebrate genes and genomes. Molecular analysis in amphioxus has confirmed that vertebrates have a genome architecture that is fundamentally different from invertebrates. First, vertebrates have more genes than invertebrates. Second, vertebrates have many small multigene families (with 2 to 4 genes). Most of these a...

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) is an autosomal dominant disease caused by mutations in the MEN1 gene (a tumor supressor gene) leading to the development of endocrine and non-endocrine tumours with variable penetrance.The most frequent features are primary hyperparathyroidism, duodeno pancreatic endocrine tumours and pituitary adenomas.Aim of the work: The aim of this retrospective study was to establish the pre...

Introduction: ACTH is measured to confirm impairments in the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. Patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) can have ectopic adrenocorticotropic secretion. In December 2009, a SCLC patient showed an enormous discrepancy between the ACTH results obtained with two different ACTH assays. The aim of this study was to compare different ACTH assays in SCLC patients.Methods: In a pilot study EDTA plasma samples of nin...