Endocrine Abstracts

Lymphocytic hypophysitis (LyH) is a rare condition often associated with pregnancy (usually presenting in the last month of pregnancy or in the first two post-partum months). We describe a very rare case of recurrent LyH during two pregnancies.A 25-years old woman presented in 7/2003 with a 6-week history of headaches and a 2-week history of visual deterioration whilst 38 weeks pregnant. Bitemporal hemianopia was co...

A 22-year-old Caucasian female was referred to thyroid specialist clinic due to difficulties fully suppressing her thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) despite high dose combination therapy of triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) treatment. She had a well-differentiated thyroid -carcinoma of left thyroid lobe treated with left lobectomy. Several other small primary thyroid carcinoma lesions were detected on further examination of the histology which lead to completion thyroid...

Background: Turner syndrome (TS) is associated with significant morbidity and a reduction in life expectancy. National guidelines have been developed to support the management of adult patients with TS but little is known about their implementation. We therefore sought to compare the management of patients with TS seen within a single tertiary referral centre by endocrinology, either general-purpose or Turner-specific clinics (TSC), or by other specialties.<p class="abstex...

Hypertension is the most commonly recognised cardiac manifestation of a phaeochromocytoma. There are however a variety of other cardiac presentations including arrhythmias and the increasingly reported Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. We present the case of a female patient presenting acutely to the general medical take who was found to have cardiac arrhythmias and transient left ventricular dysfunction.The initial presentation was breathlessness, chest pain, s...

Over the last 10 years there have been significant advances in stem cell transplantation (SCT) in adults for haematological malignancies leading to improved survival. Conditioning regimes prior to transplantation often utilise high dose chemotherapy and/or total body irradiation (TBI). Significant endocrinopathies have been reported amongst children undergoing SCT. We report the effect of SCT during adult life on endocrine function.Basal hormone levels w...

Background: Studies of memory function in patients treated for pituitary adenoma demonstrate deficits in immediate memory (IM) regardless of whether surgery or radiotherapy was received. We have previously shown variability in IM between patients who received the same treatment. The present study was designed to identify changes in the neurological pathways associated with memory function in patients treated for non-functioning pituitary adenoma (NFA) using functional magnetic...

Survival following treatment for childhood malignancy has improved considerably over the last 40 years. Complications of treatment are frequent and although the long-term follow-up of patients is recommended, only 35% of patients are seen regularly. Endocrine complications of cancer therapy, including thyroid dysfunction, are well recognised. The aim of this study is to determine the frequency of hypothyroidism amongst the patients within the Bristish Childhood Cancer Survivor...

Background: Surgery, sometimes supported by adjunctive radiotherapy (RT), is the treatment of choice for patients with non-functioning pituitary adenoma (NFA). Previous studies have shown that patients treated with pituitary RT have doubling of mortality ratio due to cerebrovascular disease (CVD) but the reason for this excess is unclear. Transcranial Doppler (TCD) can be used to measure blood velocity in the middle cerebral arteries (MCAs) within the circle of Willis and also...

Background: Surgery, sometimes supported by adjunctive radiotherapy (RT) are the treatments of choice for patients with non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFA). Previous studies have implicated these treatments in deficits of cognitive function, particularly memory and executive functioning, although this research has often been confounded by the inclusion of patients with hormone producing tumours. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of RT on psychometric funct...

Contemporary management of macroprolactinomas relies heavily on the use of dopamine agonist (DA) therapy. However, historically a proportion of patients may have undergone surgery and/or pituitary radiotherapy. We aimed to determine the long-term outcome in terms of tumour control and prolactin normalisation in a large cohort of patients with macroprolactinoma who received various treatment modalities. 80 patients (54 male) with macroprolactinoma (tumour diameter >10 mm, p...