Endocrine Abstracts

Although thyroid hormone (T3) and the T3-receptor (TR) alpha gene are essential for skeletal development, T3-signalling pathways in bone have not been characterised. We identified fibroblast growth factor receptor-1 (FGFR1) as a novel T3-inducible gene in osteoblasts by subtraction hybridisation. FGFR1 mRNA was induced 2-3 fold in osteosarcoma cells and primary cultured osteoblasts treated with T3 (0.1-1000nM, 0-48h) and FGFR1 protein was stimulated 2-4 fold over the same peri...

A 75-year-old female presented with 12kg weight loss and malaise, 18 months after a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Abdominal CT scanning demonstrated bilateral adrenal masses and her symptoms responded rapidly to empirical treatment with dexamethasone. CT guided biopsy demonstrated adrenal hyperplasia.Centripetal weight distribution and proximal myopathy were prominent, and serum cortisol failed to suppress following standard 48h low dose (662nm...

Background: Vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency and adiposity have deleterious effects on skeletal health and can increase arterial stiffness. Additionally, low bone mass is associated with increased arterial disease, but little is known about the association of bone geometry with arterial disease.Objective: To determine the association between bone geometry and arterial stiffness in overweight (body mass index >25 kg/m2], older adults [50&...

Introduction: haemangiopericytoma is a rare soft tissue tumour originating from pericytes. These are often large and slow growing tumours and manifest rarely as hypoglycaemia. We report a case of haemangiopericytoma-induced hypoglycaemia.Case report: A 72-year-old lady presented with an episode of confusion. She had had similar episodes usually in the early morning hours. She was also known to have hypertension and a large bladder haemangio...

BackgroundObesity is closely associated with impaired adipose tissue function. Although bariatric surgery is the treatment of choice for severe obesity and its related conditions, there are conflicting data on the reversal of adipose tissue dysfunction after surgery-induced weight loss. We hypothesise that local steroid hormone availability influences fat deposition or mobilisation and that these changes track with weight loss improvements, because plasm...

Case history/Investigations/Results and treatment: A previously healthy 36 year old female was admitted to a local intensive care unit with psychosis and intractable hypokalaemia. She had delivered a live preterm baby girl at 33 weeks gestation ten days previously. The hypokalaemia led to an endocrine consultation which revealed onset of symptoms in the third trimester, with no symptoms present pre-conception. Serum cortisol was 2,258 nmol/l with a nadir K+ of 2.2 mmol/l. She ...

Paltusotine is a once-daily, oral, nonpeptide somatostatin receptor type 2 (SST2) specific agonist, in development for the treatment of acromegaly and neuroendocrine tumors. We report interim results from ACROBAT Advance (NCT04261712), an ongoing, multicenter, open-label, long-term extension study of paltusotine in subjects with acromegaly who previously completed either Phase 2 study ACROBAT Edge (NCT03789656) or Evolve (NCT03792555). ACROBAT Edge enrolled 47 subjects with el...

Background: Dexamethasone significantly improved outcomes in patients requiring supplementary oxygen and in ventilated patients with COVID-19 in the RECOVERY trial. Consequently, dexamethasone is now routinely used in these patients. However, dysglycaemia is commonly associated with steroid use and is an established risk factor for poorer outcomes in COVID-19. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the effect of dexamethasone use in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in a real-...

Background: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is a common, curable and high-risk subset of hypertension, mandating detection. In all but the most severe cases, learned society guidelines recommend confirmatory testing. Whilst a variety of confirmatory tests exist, data describing their safety are limited. Concerns centre around the potential of some tests to precipitate hypokalaemia or a hypertensive emergency in a patient with PA on sub-optimal anti-hypertensive medication. In this ...

Introduction: Diabetes has been associated with poorer outcomes with COVID-19 infection, but precise predictors of mortality in patients with diabetes remain unclear. We assessed predictors of adverse outcomes in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (ICHNT) hospitals during the first and second waves of COVID-19 to determine if outcomes for patients with diabetes have evolved with new variants and treatments.Method...