Endocrine Abstracts

Secondary causes of diabetes are uncommon. As 50-80% of patients with diabetes have co-existing hypertension, a high index of suspicion is required to exclude a secondary cause in patients presenting with both conditions. Atypical presentations may delay the diagnosis.A 49 year old man presented with a one year history of polydipsia, polyuria and fatigue. Diabetes was diagnosed with a random blood glucose (RBG) of 12 mmol/l. Hypertension diagnosed 15 yea...

Primary adrenal tumours are responsible for about 10% of cases of Cushing's syndrome. Adrenocortical carcinomas are rare with an incidence of 2 per million per year. Both adrenocortical adenomas and carcinomas occur more commonly in women.A 46 year old previously fit woman presented with a short history of hirsutism, facial plethora, amenorrhoea, acne and progressive weight gain. Hypertension and glucose intolerance had been diagnosed recently. There was...

Growth hormone (GH) signals through the GH receptor (GHR), a member of the cytokine receptor superfamily. The extracellular domain of the GHR exists as a soluble form known as the GH binding protein (GHBP). The GHBP is either derived from the GHR by proteolysis (man, rabbit) or from the GHR gene by alternative splicing (rodents). The GHBP circulates in blood and modulates GH action by i) altering GH kinetics, ii) competing with GHRs for ligand, and iii) unproductive GHR/GHBP h...

Xanthoma Disseminatum: A rare cause of hypopituitarismS Ray and PE Belchetz; The General Infirmary at Leeds, Leeds, UK.Xanthoma disseminatum (XD) is a rare, benign, normo-lipaemic condition characterised by non- Langerhan's cell histiocytosis which usually effects male children or young adults. Patients develop nodular or infiltrating papules that are distributed along flexural areas and mucosal surfaces. Meningeal infiltration ca...

Cranial diabetes mellitus is not usually associated with microprolactinomas. We report a 29 year old lady who presented 8 months after the birth of her only child with a 4 month history of polyurea and polydipsia. She had also noticed galactorrhoea and decreased libido although she had never breastfed the child and had not resumed normal menstrual function. The birth of her child was normal and uncomplicated although she admitted to being stressed recently since the baby was h...

In an attempt to audit one aspect of the endocrine nurse's workload, all incoming telephone calls to our office were monitored over a two month period.Details recorded were the call source, the query raised and the time taken by the nurse to respond appropriately. We went on to analyse the information gathered to ascertain areas where improved clinical practice could alleviate the need for further calls.Calls totalled 200 in the ...

Oxytocin drives parturition by contracting the uterus, but transgenic mice with no oxytocin appear to give birth normally. We have previously shown that oxytocin antagonist administration delays births showing that oxytocin plays a role in normal mouse parturition. Here, we tested the hypothesis that oxytocin neurones are active during parturition, using double immunocytochemistry for Fos and oxytocin to show neuronal activation and radioimmunoassay of blood samples to seek in...

Studies on breast cancer cell lines, placental microsomes and purified recombinant enzymes have shown that various phytoestrogens can inhibit both aromatase and 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSD) enzymes. This has led to the suggestion that certain phytoestrogens may exert their endocrine disrupting functions by enzyme inhibition rather than their ability to bind weakly to oestrogen receptors. Previous studies have shown that genistein, the active ingredient of soy, ind...

Male hypogonadism can occur either due to disorders at the hypothalamic or pituitary levels or as a result of primary testicular failure. Conventionally, testosterone is replaced by depot intramuscular injections of testoterone esters or as implants producing non-physiological levels of serum testosterone. Human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) given twice-weekly s.c., stimulates endogenous testosterone secretion through its LH like action resulting in physiological serum testost...

Hypothyroidism is common with lithium therapy. Thyrotoxicosis is rare. Of 81 cases of thyrotoxicosis related to lithium therapy reported 22 were silent thyroiditis , 39 Graves' disease and 11 autonomous nodule.We report a 56 year old male who had been on lithium for the last four years for bipolar illness, was referred to us when he was found to be biochemically thyrotoxic on routine testing. The TSH was less than 0.01, FT37.3, FT4 154. On his visit to ...