Endocrine Abstracts

In an attempt, to overcome the lack of preclinical models for adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), we recently aimed at the development of patient-individual tumor models for ACC. During these studies one xenograft (MUC-1), derived from a neck metastasis of an ACC, showed extraordinary engraftment properties and sustained tumor growth over several passages in the murine host. During ongoing studies we investigated and compared all currently available xenograft models for ACC (NCI-H...

Methomyl (MET) is a carbamate insecticide used worldwide to protect a wide variety of crops from insect nuisances. Besides this beneficial role, it is classified as highly toxic compound for humans and animals by the EPA. Pistacia Lentiscus (PL) is a shrub that grows in the Mediterranean region; plant parts and oil have a long history in folk medicine in healing several diseases by their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antifungal, antiatherogenic and anticancer ...

A 56 years old lady was referred to our endocrine service for further management of levothyroxine replacement. She was diagnosed with Graves’ disease 26 years ago and underwent thyroidectomy as definite treatment. Post-operatively, she was commenced on 100mcg of levothyroxine and continued to have regular follow up with her GP. It was noted that her levothyroxine dose had to be reduced to 50 mcg daily over a period of 10 years due to persistently suppressed TSH levels wit...

A sixty-four year old man presented for investigation of mild hypercalcaemia (2.68 mmol/L) incidentally discovered during preoperative workup for elective removal of a testicular cyst. He had no family history of renal stones. His younger brother had undergone a parathyroidectomy at the age of 60. His father died in a road traffic accident aged 54. His mother was 84 and had no history of endocrine disease. Urine calcium:creatinine excretion ratio was 0.0207, excluding familial...

Background: A previous short Synacthen test (SST) audit in our hospital (2012) showed 70% of initial SST tests were normal with 9% inappropriate requests. A new pro forma was devised whereby one of four criteria (specific symptoms, medications, previous diagnosis, and physical findings) had to be satisfied to be able to undergo a SST. Additionally, we noticed that a number of patients were probably being over-diagnosed wth adrenal insufficiency (AI) based on a single 30 min co...

Introduction: Cortisol has numerous actions on glucose metabolism and insulin action which explain the frequency of glucose abnormalities in Cushing’s syndrome (CS). The aim of our work was to assess the prevalence and characteristics of diabetes in CS.Material and methods: This is a retrospective study concerning 51 CS (44F/7M) in whom we looked for the presence of diabetes either by fasting glycaemia or 75 g oral glucose tolerance test. Thereafter...

Introduction: Cortisol activates lipolysis in adipose tissue resulting in the release of free fatty acids into the circulation, it also activates cholesterol and triglycerides synthesis. The consequence is an increase in total circulating cholesterol and triglycerides with their inherent risks on the cardiovascular system. The aim of our work was to assess the prevalence and characteristics of dyslipidaemia in Cushing’s syndrome (CS).Material and me...

Introduction: Patients with Cushing’s syndrome (CS) are prone to hypertension as cortisol stimulates renal reabsorption of sodium and enhances vascular sensitivity to catecholamine and angiotensin II. This explains the frequency of hypertension in patients with CS. The aim of our work was to assess the prevalence and characteristics of hypertension in CS.Material and methods: This is a retrospective study concerning 51 CS (44F/7M) in whom we looked ...

Background: Hyperglycaemia produces various changes in the vascular tissue at the cellular level that accelerates the atherosclerosis. There is a direct correlation among carotid arterial stiffness and serum fetuin-A level. Fetuin-A is a marker of the inflammatory nutritional state and acts as a protective agent because it solubilises the calcium phosphate salt.Aim of this work: To study the role of fetuin A in atherosclerosis and its association with ty...

Introduction: Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine cancer and medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is one of the most malignant thyroid tumours which occur in both hereditary (25%) and sporadic (75%) forms. Mutations of the RET proto-oncogene in MTC development have been well demonstrated. The aim of the study was to investigate the mutational spectrum of exons 3, 5, 8, and 10–18 of RET proto-oncogene in MTC patients.Material and methods: This r...