Endocrine Abstracts

Hypertension is a major risk factor in type 2 diabetes both for cardiovascular and microvascular complications. It has been estimated that hypertension contributes to 41% of the attributable risk for mortality. Proper assessment of blood pressure, consideration of diurnal pattern, white coat and masked hypertension is important. Lifestyle factors should be addressed in the management, but in most patients pharmaceutical intervention is needed. The optimal intervention usually ...

MicroRNA (miRNA) are small RNA molecules involved in the posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression. Differential expression of miRNA has been described in several tumours. miRNA expression patterns can be used as markers of malignancy, as prognostic markers and even for the subclassification of tumours. miRNA markers can be especially useful for the diagnosis of tumours whose histological analysis is difficult such as adrenocortical cancer (ACC). Beside tissue miRNA, m...

Background: Diabetes and osteoporosis are both frequent conditions, a link may thus put a substantial number of patients at risk of fragility fractures and the consequences of these such as pain, disability, and increased mortality. Skeletal fragility and osteoporosis may represent a hitherto overlooked complication of diabetes in line with say diabetic eye disease, diabetic nephropathy etc.Findings: An increased risk of fractures has been observed in bo...

Paediatric diabetes is essentially a hospital based service with opportunities for care delivery in settings such as the home, school and community based organisations. The delivery of care (as defined in part by HbA1c) varies throughout the UK. Factors influencing this include varying staffing levels and skill sets along with social deprivation and ethnic diversity and attaining a standard of equitable care is a major challenge. The fundamental issue is not whether care is de...

Hypoglycaemia is the main factor limiting the use of intensive insulin regimens. The frequency is 0.1 – 0.3 episodes/person per day for symptomatic episodes and 1/year for severe ones. There is also an estimated mortality of 2–4% of people with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Severe hypoglycaemia increases in frequency with duration of insulin treatment. The symptoms and signs of hypoglycaemia can be separated into those due to neuroglycopenia (cognitive impairment,...

Classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency leads to glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid deficiency. Management should be viewed as a process of care which requires input from an Inter-disciplinary Team. Glucocorticoid therapy should take the form of hydrocortisone in a starting dose of 10–12 mg/m2 per day (divided into three or four doses) and the dose should be titrated to blood or urine profiles of cortisol and 17 hydroxy...

The high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency has increasingly become recognised as a problem for patients living in temperate regions. There has been considerable controversy regarding the optimal level of vitamin D nutrition and the means by which vitamin D should be replaced. The National Osteoporosis Society with the support of several other national groups including the Society for Endocrinology prepared guidelines on the diagnosis and management of vitamin D deficiency whi...

MicroRNAs, the endogenous mediators of RNA interference have been shown to be helpful as markers of malignancy and prognosis in various neoplasms. The use of microRNAs as biomarkers has been greatly expanded with findings showing their secretion into body fluids (liquid biopsy). MicroRNAs are released both passively due to necrosis and inflammation, and actively in extracellular membrane vesicles (exosomes, microvesicles) or in macromolecular complexes. Circulating microRNA ca...

MicroRNA and mRNA expression patterns have been investigated in several studies on adrenocortical tumours and in some reports on phaeochromocytomas. These studies are relevant from pathogenic, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects. Under- and overexpressed microRNAs representing tumour suppressor and oncogenic microRNAs have been reported that can be helpful in the diagnosis for differentiating benign and malignant adrenocortical tumours (e.g. miR-503-miR-511, miR-195, miR-483-5p...

MicroRNAs are involved in the regulation of numerous cellular processes including cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and hormone secretion etc. Altered expression of microRNAs has been described in several tumours including endocrine neoplasms and microRNAs have been suggested to be involved in tumourigenesis at several levels. MicroRNAs may be classified as tumour suppressors and oncogenes (onco-miR) based on their relative under- or overexpression in tumour tiss...