Endocrine Abstracts

Background: The most efficacious and acceptable form of testosterone replacement therapy remains a matter of debate. Proponents of testosterone implant therapy suggest implant therapy is the most acceptable form to patients with high continuation rates. Current practise within our hospital has led to increasing numbers of patients receiving implant therapy.Methods: We performed a retrospective postal questionnaire to determine the views of our implant recipients. Recipient...

A 20 years old primigravida 11weeks pregnant presented with increasing neck size, having noticed some neck swelling 4 years previously. There was no history of dysphagia or stridor. Apart of mild asthma she was well with no significant past medical or family history. TSH was normal at the time she was referred by the GP to the endocrine clinic. On examination she had a smooth thyroid swelling but no cervical lymphadenopathy. Further thyroid function tests confirmed a normal TS...

Over a third of women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) display glucose intolerance and multiple risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including central obesity. Interleukin-6, a cytokine that is mainly derived from adipose tissue, has recently been implicated as an important link in the development of cardiovascular disease in obesity. We determined the relations between circulating Interleukin-6 levels and anthropometric, metabolic and hormonal parameters in 38 wome...

One third of pituitary adenomas surgically removed are invasive, the presence of which increases the patients' risk of morbidity and mortality. IL6 has been shown to have conflicting effects on growth of human pituitary adenoma cells in culture but may act not only with mitogenic effects but on facilitating tumour invasion into surrounding tissue. We have previously shown IL6 mRNA expression correlates with invasive status and tumour volume(1). IL6 and IL1 are known to stimula...

Disorders of calcium metabolism may occur as hereditary traits eg. the Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) or type 2 (MEN2) syndromes, Familial isolated hyperparathyroidism (FIHP), neonatal severe primary hyperparathyroidism (NSHPT), Familial benign hypocalciuric hypercalcaemia (FBHH), the autoimmune poly- endocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal-dystrophy (APECED) and DiGeorge syndromes, isolated hypoparathyroidism and the autosomal dominant hypocalcaemic hypercalciuria (...

Patients with acute intermittent porphyria (AIP) but not those with porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) have a reported predominance in urine of 5 beta-reduced androgen metabolites over 5 alpha epimers. Steroids of 5 beta- androstane and pregnane types induce delta-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) synthase in chick embryos in vitro, so altered 5-reduction may predispose to attacks. We have comprehensively examined urine androgen and cortisol metabolites by gas-liquid chromatography and uri...

IntroductionChildren with growth hormone (GH) deficiency and primary/secondary hypoadrenalism are susceptible to hypoglycaemia pre-treatment but little is known about insulin sensitivity and hypoglycaemic susceptibility post-diagnosis.Methods12 children (10.1 plus/minus 4.2y; mean plus/minus 1SD) with pituitary hormone deficiency (5 GHD, 7 GH/cortisol insufficient - GHCD) and 7 (8.2 plus/minus 3.8y) with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) were studied after obtai...

BACKGROUND: Atherosclerosis is a major cause of mortality in diabetes mellitus. Gene therapy may be a useful approach to the treatment of this disorder. One of the main obstacles to the use of this therapeutic modality is the difficulty in obtaining safe and efficient gene transfer in vivo. Adenoassociated virus vector have been used in a number of previous studies but have never been used for vascular gene delivery. OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to characterize AAV mediated gene de...

INTRODUCTIONWe assessed the long-term outcomes of patients managed with intermittent androgen suppression (IAS) following their enrolment in an open, non-randomised feasibility study initiated 10 years ago.PATIENTS AND METHODSAll patients were required to have been managed with androgen suppression for a minimum of 9 months and achieved PSA remissions to levels <4ng/ml. Therapy was stopped and the patients...

Introduction: In lambs, the rapid increase in heat production after birth is due to the initiation of nonshivering thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue (BAT). This occurs in conjunction with an increase in amount and activity of the BAT specific uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). Both mRNA and protein for the long and short forms of the prolactin receptor are highly abundant in ovine BAT up to the time of birth. The following study aimed to determine whether prolactin administratio...