Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: We describe two patients admitted to our institution with severe hypercalcaemia, resistant to conventional treatment, requiring haemofiltration. Patient 1 was admitted to hospital with profound hypercalcaemia (5.8 mmol/L) secondary to primary hyperparathyroidism (PTH >263 Pmol/L). The hypercalcaemia had been discovered on a surgical admission 3 months previously and was being managed with 0.9% normal saline and pamidronate infusions at an outside hospital. On...

In the pancreas, PYY is expressed in a subpopulation of non-beta cells in the islets of Langerhans. The role of PYY-expressing cells in the adult pancreas is unknown. We generated a mouse model in which administration of diphtheria toxin (DT) produced specific ablation of PYY-expressing cells in the colon, pancreas and brainstem. Interestingly, DT administration to adult mice resulted in severe hyperglycaemia associated with significant loss of pancreatic insulin and disrupted...

Background: Pituitary macroadenomas are an uncommon cause of Cushing’s disease. They present with a higher cortisol burden, are more aggressive and harder to cure and manage than microadenomas.Aims: To review the demographics, clinical features, biochemistry, radiology and required treatment modalities of a single-centre case series of corticotroph macroadenomas.Methods: Retrospective analysis and review of the case records of...

Aims/hypothesis: Adrenal incidentaloma (AI) are very common, but optimal management of patients with AI and low-grade excess cortisol secretion is not established. Uncontrolled studies reporting outcomes of adrenalectomy suggest improvements in cardiovascular risk, but all are subject to selection bias, and it is unclear if benefits are due to removal of excess cortisol. We reasoned that short-term use of mifepristone, a rapidly-acting glucocorticoid receptor (GR) antagonist, ...

Case report: A 33-year-old pregnant Nigerian woman presented at 37 wks gestation with a 2-week history of frequent headaches and visual disturbance. She had persistent galactorrhoea following previous pregnancy in 1998, which settled after a short course of bromocriptine. On examination, she had classical bitemporal hemianopia. Her prolactin was raised at 19,220 mU/L (higher than expected in a normal pregnancy), random cortisol 553 nmol/L and thyroid function tests satisfactor...

Background: Women with epilepsy may be at risk of developing PCOS, but it is unclear whether this is due to the disease or sodium valproate (VPA) therapy. We sought to determine androgenic status and cardiometabolic risk in women taking VPA monotherapy and compared these with subjects taking lamotrigine and healthy controls.Methods: Patients with epilepsy (age 18–43) with no known vascular risk were divided into 3 groups: VPA monotherapy (n=1...

Introduction: Graves’ disease (GD) is associated with cardiac complications like tachydysrythmias, coronary ischaemia and cardiomyopathy. They are uncommon in the young. We present three individuals without previous cardiac disease, who developed significant cardiac complications of GD.Case presentations Subject 1: A 34-year-old female smoker, presented with breathlessness, palpitations, tremors and agitation for several weeks. Her fT4 was ...

IntroductionIndividuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are at an increased risk of developing fractures, despite higher mean BMI and BMD. Recently, clinically relevant sub-groups of T2DM have been characterised using biomarkers of glycemic metabolism.AimCharacterise T2DM sub-groups in a population-based setting and test for differences in fracture risk.Methods<p class="abstext...

Section 1: A 77 year female was referred by her GP in May 2019 for abnormal thyroid function tests (TFT) which were requested due to new diagnosis of atrial fibrillation. The patient was otherwise asymptomatic and clinically euthyroid. Family History was negative for thyroid abnormalities. On enquiry, the patient revealed that she had abnormal thyroid function tests associated with a large goitre in 1970s and subsequently underwent partial thyroidectomy followed by radioactive...

Normal functioning of the thyroid is of profound importance for lifetime health due to its role in hormone production. Dysfunction of the thyroid is associated with severe congenital pathologies, some of them appearing in childhood. For example, over half the babies born with congenital hypothyroidism appear completely normal and without symptoms. However, early diagnosis of thyroid defects is lacking mainly due to a poor understanding of the development of the tissue in utero...