Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Hyperthyroidism affects 1.3% of the population. The antithyroid drugs (ATD), carbimazole and propylthiouracil, can induce agranulocytosis, a rare but potentially life threatening side-effect with a prevalence of 0.10–0.15%. We assessed the adequacy of our patient’s knowledge of this side-effect.Methods: Patients on ATD completed a questionnaire before attending clinic. The questionnaire consisted of nine questions detailing informat...

Ectopic ACTH secretion accounts for 11–25% of Cushing’s syndrome, most commonly resulting from small cell lung carcinoma and bronchial carcinoid tumours. Ectopic ACTH requires meticulous consideration in the differential of ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome. Thymic carcinoids are a very rare cause of ectopic ACTH secretion, accounting for 5–12% of cases. A 28 year old gentleman was diagnosed with Cushing’s syndrome after presenting with lethargy, hyper...

Considerable dichotomy exists in the phenotype of adults with severe GHD of childhood (CO-GHD) and adult-onset (AO-GHD). Those with CO-GHD show immaturity. Adults with partial GHD (GH insufficiency (GHI), peak GH 3.1–7.0 μg/l) show a similar, but milder phenotype to adults with severe GHD. Whether a similar dichotomy relating to timing of onset is observed in CO-GHI and AO-GHI adults is not known.We studied 24 adults with GHI (CO-GHI n=1...

A 50-year-old man presented with a week history of feeling unwell and urinary symptoms. He was confused. His wife gave H/O 2 stone weight loss. Recent investigation for haematuria showed 3.6 cm bladder tumour. He underwent TURBT and the histology was awaited. No other significant PMH or family H/O. Not on any medication and was an ex-smoker.Initial investigations showed leucocytosis and evidence of UTI. CXR showed chronic fibrotic changes. As a part of c...

A 24-year-old women (wt 63 kg, BMI 23) presented with history of secondary amenorrhea. Menarche occurred at age 16 years and was followed by a regular cycle (7/35). She started the combined oral contraceptive pill (OCP) at 18 years of age for menorrhagia and stopped this 16 months before her presentation, before undergoing elective surgery. Four months after discontinuing the OCP she experienced a single episode of PV bleeding, but otherwise remained amenorrhoeic. Past history...

A minority of patients with hyperthyroidism resulting from relapsed Grave’s disease or autonomous nodules refuse definitive treatment with surgery or radioiodine, and request long-term anti-thyroid medication. There are few data concerning the safety and efficacy of this therapeutic modality.We performed a retrospective analysis of 13 patients (8 relapsed Grave’s disease, 5 toxic MNG), 12F, median age 60 (31–76) yrs and duration of long-te...

Introduction: Adrenal Insufficiency (AI) is a heterogeneous condition comprising primary, secondary and tertiary disease. Individuals with AI suffer more frequent infections and take longer to recover. Adrenal Crises (ACs), most commonly precipitated by infections, are an acute life-threatening complication with a reported mortality of 6%. ACs are, at least in part, potentially preventable and outcomes are improved by early initiation of high-dose glucocorticoids. Currently, t...

Objective: Arthropathy is the commonest morbidity in acromegaly and the main determinant of quality of life in these patients. Most of current knowledge is derived from studies using conventional x-rays. This study aims to characterise acromegalic arthropathy using modern imaging techniques.Methods: Case control study comprising of 60 acromegaly patients (29 males, mean age 54.8± 12.9yrs) and 300 age/gender-matched controls from the publicly availab...

Case history: A male patient presented to the Endocrine clinic age 64, with an 18-year history of erectile dysfunction. He was treated under Urology with phosphodiesterase inhibitors and Nebido injections for hypogonadism. Notably the cause of hypogonadism had not been established. The patient was concurrently reviewed by Oral Medicine due to a 2.5-year history of xerostomia, and Dermatology for a non-healing, erythematous, pruritic lesion on his right lower leg and several wh...

Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is reported to have effects on a number of hormone systems including glycaemic control, catecholamines, and the HPA axis. In this study we aimed to determine the impact of OSA on IGF-I levels.Patients & Methods: This is a prospective cohort study performed at Leeds Teaching Hospitals. Patients were recruited from the Sleep Apnoea Clinic between November 2014 and May 2...