Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the commonest cause of secondary hypertension. Reported prevalence is about 30% in hypertensive population. Success of screening for PA in general practice (GP) is unknown. Expected challenges include laboratory access, transport issues and interfering medications.Aims: We aimed to report prevalence of PA in a large primary care cohort, the correlation between GP and in-hospital ARR and to assess if a change in r...

Introduction: The incidence of the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuresis (SIAD) post pituitary surgery is estimated at 3-20% with the condition potentially leading to significant morbidity and prolonged admission. Copeptin, a surrogate marker for vasopressin activity, has been shown to be a diagnostic tool in the diagnosis of AVP deficiency (formerly known as diabetes insipidus) post pituitary surgery. There is limited data regarding the utility of copeptin in predicting SIAD...

Introduction: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare thyroid malignancy originating from parafollicular C-cells. It accounts for 5% of all thyroid carcinomas.Methods: A retrospective registry-based analysis of demography, clinical manifestation, genetics, management, and outcome of pathologically proven MTC cases presented in a tertiary care hospital in India was done.Results: Among 71 evaluated cases, the mean age of presenta...

Background: Diabetes insipidus (DI) is a recognised complication of pituitary surgery, with current diagnosis requiring clinical observation aided by plasma and urine electrolytes and osmolalities. Copeptin, a 39 amino acid glycopeptide secreted in equimolar quantities to ADH, is a stable surrogate marker of ADH release and has potential to facilitate prompt diagnosis of post-operative DI. This assay has been shown to accurately predict which patients are likely to develop DI ...

Background: Patients receiving radiotherapy for residual or recurrent pituitary adenoma require regular surveillance for the development of anterior pituitary axis deficit. Whilst the sequelae of hypopituitarism post cranial irradiation is well recognized, there are relatively varied incidences of new onset hypopituitarism post-conventional radiotherapy, reported in the literature. We aimed to investigate timing and frequency of the individual axis deficits in adults who have ...

Rathke’s cleft cysts (RCC) arise from the embryonic remnants of Rathke’s pouch in the anterior pituitary gland. The majority are asymptomatic and incidentally diagnosed when the pituitary is imaged for other reasons. RCCs can progress to requiring surgical intervention for hormonal and structural effects. It is unclear what factors determine RCC enlargement and over what period this occurs, hence need for long term follow-up is uncertain. We analysed our conservative...

Transsphenoidal adenomectomy (TSA) is the recommended primary therapy in most patients with acromegaly and results in remission for majority of microadenomas and a proportion of macroadenomas depending on extent of surgically accessible disease. Acromegaly is associated with significant mortality and morbidity, hence a combination of treatment modalities may be needed to achieve disease control.Methods: A retrospective casenotes review was conducted and ...

Background: Current drug treatment options for adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) are rather limited and intensive efforts are going on to find novel effective agents. In our previous functional genomics study, retinoid signalling via the retinoid X receptor (RXR) was identified as a major pathogenic pathway in ACC and we have demonstrated the in vitro activity of 9-cis retinoic acid (9-cisRA) acting via the RXR on NCI-H295R cells and also found that 9-cisRA has antitumou...

Background: Adrenal myelolipoma (AML) is a relatively common and invariably benign tumor composed of adipose tissue and hematopoietic elements. Due to the variable proportion of fat and hematopoietic elements, it is sometimes challenging to differentiate AML from adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). MicroRNAs have been identified as promising biomarkers in many tumors, including adrenocortical neoplasms, but the microRNA expression of adrenal myelolipoma has not been investigated, ...

It is generally believed that the signal transduction of AT1 angiotensin receptor (AT1R), the major receptor of angiotensin II, requires ligand binding and subsequent adoption of its active conformation. Activated AT1R induces a plethora of signaling pathways, in contrast to inactive AT1R, which was thought to be silent in terms of signaling. We hypothesized that unliganded, but phosphorylated AT1R may recruit β-arrestins, the key proteins of receptor desensitization, int...