Endocrine Abstracts

Background and Aims: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a leading cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer, is increasing worldwide due to rising obesity rates, particularly in Asia. Weight loss induced with diet and exercise decreases hepatic steatosis and inflammation, but requires greater efforts to sustain compared to medication. We therefore aimed to compare the effects of liraglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist which induces weight loss, on hepatic steatosis an...

Introduction: Childhood obesity has become an important health problem nowadays. Intracranial lesions (IC) can affect the hypothalamic - hypophyseal axis depending on the localization of the lesion and lead to hypophyseal hormone deficiencies, especially growth hormone. Although IC lesions are important in the etiology of obesity, There’s limited data in the literature about this subject. Aim of this study is to evaluate the incidence of IC lesions and their role in clini...

Background: Prednisolone is used for glucocorticoid replacement therapy in Adrenal Insufficiency. Package inserts indicate that prednisolone should be administered with or after food as there is a belief that prednisolone causes stomach ulcers. We have investigated the impact of various fasted and non-fasted states on its pharmacokinetic profile.Method: A healthy volunteer provided three 4 mg prednisolone profiles. The first was a fasted reference curve....

Background: The cortisol circadian rhythm has an early morning peak with an increase before awakening, and a second lunchtime peak. Using a UPLC-MS/MS technique to measure prednisolone, the active metabolite of prednisone, we investigated the suitability of modified release (MR) prednisone (Lodotra) as a replacement therapy.Method: Blood samples were taken at fixed time points after the administration of MR-prednisone. Concentrations of the active metabo...

Prednisolone has been reported to have greater deleterious effects on bone turnover than other glucocorticoids, although the evidence for this is confounded by the effects of higher dose prednisolone, as used in conditions such as asthma. We hypothesise that a physiological replacement dose of prednisolone will have a less dramatic effect on bone than has previously been suggested, and might be safer than hydrocortisone for replacement in adrenal insufficiency. We investigated...

Mrs. M is a 66-year-old female who has had secondary adrenal insufficiency for many years following the withdrawal of prednisolone therapy for pulmonary eosinophilia. Synacthen tests revealed complete adrenal suppression when the dose of prednisolone was weaned to 5 mg in previous years. The dose was further reduced by switching to hydrocortisone three times daily, following a 10 mg-5 mg-5 mg regimen. Occasionally, a flare of eosinophilia required restarting high-dose predniso...

Background and aim: Lymphocytic hypophysitis is heterogeneous inflammatory processes of the pituitary gland and may cause isolated hormone deficiency, but rarely occurs as panhypopituitarism. We aim to present a rare case of ulcerative colitis coexisting with lymphocytic hypophysitis.Case report: A 42-years old woman with ulcerative colitis was applied for our department of internal medicine with hypoglycemia. Her capillary blood glucose levels were foun...

Failure of trophoblast invasion and remodelling of maternal blood vessels leads to the pregnancy complication pre-eclampsia (PE). Metabolomic profiling of placentas from such pregnancies has identified deranged sphingolipid metabolism as one of the pathways altered in PE. In other systems, the bioactive sphingolipid, sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) controls cell migration therefore this study aimed to determine its effect on extravillous trophoblast (EVT) function.<p class="...

Background: Childhood obesity is a growing problem worldwide, with serious effects on child health. Obese children are at a higher risk of developing metabolic co-morbidities earlier in life (WHO, 2013). Manchester has worse than national average levels of obesity, with an estimated 14 000 obese children (PHE, 2014).Aims and methods: A retrospective case note analysis of 117 obese paediatric patients, seen in our service between March 2012 and 2014, was ...

Phaeochromocytomas (PCC) and paragangliomas (PGL) are rare tumours derived from the sympathetic or parasympathetic paraganglia. They characteristically secrete catecholamines (noradrenaline/adrenaline/dopamine), which are metabolised to the metanephrines (normetadrenaline/metadrenaline/3-MT respectively). These tumour markers can be detected in acidified 24-h urine collections as first-line investigative tests. Plasma 3-MT has been characterised as a biomarker of metastatic PG...