Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Acute renal failure (ARF) is a rare but life-threatening complication of severe diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in children.Aim: To characterise the presentation, treatment and clinical course of children with DKA complicated by severe ARF requiring renal support.Method: Retrospective notes review of patients aged <16 years admitted in 2011–2016 to 3 UK regional paediatric intensive care units (St George’s H...

Background: The short Synacthen test (SST) is commonly used for assessing adrenal reserve. Depending on the cause, we often use serial SSTs in current practice, to assess whether people with adrenal insufficiency (AI) have adrenal axis recovery. We aimed to explore if baseline cortisol levels were a suitable screening test for recovery in people with AI rather than using serial SST in all cases.Methods: We retrospectivel...

Background: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) involves the autoimmune destruction of pancreatic islet beta cells, with recent research implicating a role for viral infections in its onset. The rise in T1D cases during the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked investigations into potential causes. Molecular mimicry between SARS-CoV-2 antigens and pancreatic islet antigens has been suggested as a plausible mechanism, yet no attempts have been made to explore this phenomenon as comparing f...

Hyponatraemia is associated with an increased morbidity and mortality. Despite having a hyponatraemia algorithm (pdf format) on our hospital intranet, it was rarely accessed and a wide variation in care was noticed. A novel digital hyponatraemia diagnostic toolkit (hyponatraemia.wordpress.com) for Foundation doctors (FDs) was introduced to assess our aims if it: A) increases the awareness of FDs to start investigating when serum Sodium is <130 mmol/l B) increases FD...

Background: Pegylated interferon-alpha (IFN-α) is licensed as an antiviral, immunomodulatory and anti-proliferative therapy, but may induce autoimmune conditions including Type 1 diabetes Mellitus/latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adults (LADA). Case Report: A 50-year-old male presented with a 3-week history of polyuria, polydipsia and weight loss. Following review by his General Practitioner he was found to have an elevated serum glucose (55.4 mmol/l)....

Introduction: Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is an anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated systemic vasculitis of both small and medium-sized vessels. Pituitary involvement in GPA is uncommon and few cases have been previously reported. Isolated pituitary involvement in GPA is rare and 96% of cases are associated with other organ involvement. GPA commonly affects the upper respiratory tract (93%), lungs (73%) and kidneys (67%).Case...

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common co-morbidity in patients with heart failure and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (HF-REF), and is associated with adverse prognosis. Subgroup analyses of randomized controlled trials suggest patients with DM benefit prognostically from beta-adrenoreceptor blockers (BB) and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi). However, it remains unclear whether escalating doses of these age...

Background: Sporadic and familial autosomal dominant non-autoimmune hyperthyroidism (S/FANH) is caused by activating germline mutations in the TSH Receptor (TSHR) gene. These patients lack TSHR-Ab, show diffuse uptake on radionuclide thyroid scan and often lack positive family history due to variable penetrance. Because of these overlapping features, S/FANH is difficult to distinguished from Graves’ disease without autoimmune features. Ther...

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common co-morbidity in patients with heart failure and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (HF-REF), and is associated with adverse prognosis. Subgroup analyses of randomized controlled trials suggest patients with DM benefit prognostically from beta-adrenoreceptor blockers (BB) and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi). However, it remains unclear whether escalating doses of these age...

Background: Sporadic and familial autosomal dominant non-autoimmune hyperthyroidism (S/FANH) is caused by activating germline mutations in the TSH Receptor (TSHR) gene. These patients lack TSHR-Ab, show diffuse uptake on radionuclide thyroid scan and often lack positive family history due to variable penetrance. Because of these overlapping features, S/FANH is difficult to distinguished from Graves’ disease without autoimmune features. Ther...