Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is autosomal recessively inherited with a world-wide incidence of 1:10 000–1:20 000 births.Objectives: To document the prevalence of clinically diagnosed CAH and describe the spectrum of the condition in Sri Lankan children.Method: Request letters were sent to all paediatricians in state-sector hospitals to report details of children <16 years with CAH under their care. St...

Cushing’s disease is the main cause of endogenous hypercortisolism. Comorbidities increase morbidity and mortality and the treatment is fundamentally surgical. Patients may use drugs to lower hypercortisolism as pre-surgical preparation and post-surgical treatment when cure is not reached.Objective: Evaluate the benefits and collateral effects of ketoconazole in Cushing’s disease.Methods: In 22 patients with Cushing’...

Recent data have shown that, in parallel to its transcriptional action down-regulating TSH synthesis, triiodothyronine (T3) also acts on posttranscriptional steps of beta TSH synthesis, reducing the polyadenylation and translational rate of the beta TSH mRNA, when acutely administered to thyroidectomized rats. This study aimed to investigate whether these effects also occur in TalphaT1 cells, and if they are dependent on gene transcription, which would characterize ...

Biopharmaceuticals are complex molecules and can show variation between production batches. Physicochemical tests and biological activity measurements contribute complementary data to the characterisation of these products.As part of a project to correlate physicochemical and bioassay data, under the Department of Trade and Industry’s Measurements for Biotechnology programme, we have developed a simple, robust cellbased bioassay protocol for interfe...

Introduction and aim: Thyroid hormones (THs) regulates metabolism in adults, such as controlling energy balance by regulating energy expenditure and its storage. Hyperthyroidism increases thermogenesis, which results in the increase of the metabolic rate. THs, when combined with their receptor, can induce the expression of some genes, which can reflect on the content and activity of specific proteins. There are studies showing that THs affect the uptake of nutrients, such as g...

Introduction: The presence of heterophilic antibodies resulting in assay interference could lead to falsely high or low values in biochemical investigations. We present a case of a 5-year-old girl who had persistently high level of TSH despite Levothyroxine treatment.History: A five-year girl was found to have an elevated plasma TSH level (24.29 mU/L) with normal Free T4 (both measured using Abbott Alinity immunoassay) w...

Background: Adrenocortical carcinoma in childhood is a rare tumour which accounts for about 0.2% of all paediatric malignancies. Affected children usually present with virilization, cushingoid features, and/or mineralocorticoid excess. We present a boy with adrenal carcinoma presented with virilization and unusually suppressed cortisol at initial presentation.Case report: A two-year-old boy presented with pubic hair, acne, and increased penile growth wit...

Background and Aim: Unacylated ghrelin (UAG) is the major form of circulating ghrelin. Initially considered as a non-functional peptide, soon after UAG has been associated to a negative action on energy balance, suppression of hepatic glucose production and decrease in circulating levels of insulin. The aim of this study was to analyze the association between the serum levels of UAG and glucose metabolism parameters in obese women, independently from the eventual interference ...

Introduction: Bariatric surgery has proved to be effective in the management of morbid obesity. Our purpose was to compare the results obtained with adjustable gastric banding (GB) and Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB) during 2 years of follow-up after surgery, with regard to anthropometric parameters and related comorbidities.Methods: We evaluated prospectively patients who underwent GB and RYGB between 2004 and 2010 and compared the evolution of anthropo...

Introduction: Incidental diagnosis of thyroid nodules has increased in recent years, leading to thyroid cancer diagnosis inflation. Nonetheless, mortality rate for thyroid malignancies remains very low, suggesting that its treatment is unlikely to affect the overall prognosis in the majority of cases. Several thyroid imaging scores have been proposed to reduce unnecessary invasive diagnostic procedures. Our aim was to verify the usefulness of the EU-TIRADS score on sparing thy...