Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: To elicit the factors affecting the severity of Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) in an endocrine outpatient population in a district general hospital.Methodology: A retrospective analysis of serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels of all patients known to an endocrine clinic between 1st January 2009 and 30th June 2011. The first vitamin D level within this period was recorded. Other biochemical markers and co-morbidities were also studied.<p class="abstext"...

Anti-thyroperoxidase autoantibodies (TPOAb) are one of the major secondary autoantibodies associated with AITD. Many endocrine hospital referrals are received for patients with elevated TPOAb levels without other disordered thyroid function tests.This study aimed to investigate the use of TPOAb testing in hospital practice, to determine whether the presence or absence of TPOAb indicates the existence of thyroid disease and the effect of the TPOAb result ...

Gene arrays are a powerful tool to search for novel targets of drug action and disease-specific patterns of gene expression. GH has pleiotropic actions and thus a wide range of potential gene targets. Using an accessible tissue, namely peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs), we have started to explore the use of gene arrays in the context of the in-vivo response to GH treatment.PBMNCs were obtained with consent and ethical permission from 2 prepuber...

QLS-H is a new, weighted QoL questionnaire developed for patients with hypopituitarism. We evaluated QLS-H data from UK patients in the HypoCCs International surveillance study, and compared results with a sample of the general UK population (n=1090).The QLS-H questionnaire was administered at baseline and at yearly intervals. Scores were corrected for age and gender differences, and expressed as Z-scores based on UK-specific reference ranges. Using this...

Preadipocytes differentiate into mature adipocytes when treated with insulin, T3, isobutylmethylxanthine and dexamethasone but the role of their autocrine factors in their survival and function has only recently been appreciated. We have examined the expression and role of autocrine FGF-2 during preadipocyte differentiation. Using human preadipocytes isolated from subcutaneous fat, we induced differentiation in differentiation medium with and without the insulin-sensitising dr...

Human skin is a target tissue for circulating androgens released from the adrenal glands and gonads but local steroid production may also occur in human skin. StAR is a cholesterol transporter protein that controls the rate-limiting step in steroid synthesis and is regulated by steroidogenic factor (SF-1) in the adrenal glands. We have demonstrated the expression of StAR mRNA by RT-PCR in primary dermal papilla cells and in the immortalised human keratinocyte cell line HaCaT. ...

Lithium-induced hyperparathyroidism was first described in 1973 by Garfinkel et. al.The two cases aim to illustrate Lithium-induced hyperparathyroidism which was previously thought to be a rare occurrence and outline characteristic features of this disorder.Case 1.A 51 year old male presented with polydipsia and polyuria. He was known to suffer from bipolar affective disorder with lithium treatment was admitt...

Diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Criteria for high risk populations that should be screened for diabetes needs be revising.Hospital admissions are stressful events and abnormally high random blood glucose levels are not acted upon appropriately.We studied 100 consecutive admissions to coronary care unit to assess the incidence of hyperglycaemia/diabetes on admiss...

Lithium-induced hyperparathyroidism was first described in 1973 by Garfinkel et. al.The two cases aim to illustrate Lithium-induced hyperparathyroidism which was previously thought to be a rare occurrence and outline characteristic features of this disorder.Case 1.A 51 year old male presented with polydipsia and polyuria. He was known to suffer from bipolar affective disorder with lithium treatment was admitt...

Normal range glycemia towards higher side has been shown to have a higher risk than lower range of glycemia(1).People with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) with better glycemic control would be an ideal step towards prevention of coronary heart disease CHD.Prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes remains high(2). Diagnosis of diabetes is made too late in too many patients. By the time diagnosis is made complications have already settled ...