Endocrine Abstracts

We report two ladies who presented with thyroid dysfunction associated with neck swelling. In both cases within ten days of consultation they developed rapid enlargement of their mass associated with marked swelling of an arm.Case 1. A 63 year old lady developed sudden onset of a thyroid swelling associated with a new diagnosis of primary hypothyroidism . She had lost weight and felt tired. On examination she had a moderately enlarged woody goitre, there was no associated ...

Gorham-Stout disease is a rare, potentially life threatening skeletal disorder of unknown aetiology. It is characterized by local proliferation of abnormal vessels associated with profound osteolysis. Optimum treatment remains to be established. Herein we report the case of a 45-year-old woman who presented with left-sided thoracic pain, which had gradually increased over the last nine months. Physical examination revealed a primary lymphoedema of the left arm, which had devel...

Alstrom syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder characterised by obesity, sensorineural deafness, cone-rod dystrophy and hypergonadotrophic hypogonadism. Diabetes in these patients is characterised by severe insulin resistance.We describe the management of diabetes in a 28 year old male patient with Alstrom syndrome and severe insulin resistance. Obesity developed early in childhood and at 3 years weight was 22.2 kg. Genetic studies revealed that the patient is a compo...

Objective We aimed to immunopurify GnSAF, using antibodies with demonstrated GnSAF bioactivity-blocking/binding activity, in order to confirm 2 new candidate amino acid sequences for human ovarian GnSAF (Fowler et al. Mol Human Reprod 2002;8:823-832).Methods Rat antiserum, raised against a 60-70 kDa band of partially purified GnSAF, was immobilised on anti-rat IgG Dynabeads. In addition, a human antibody, derived from a phage display antibody library a...

Background: The pro-proliferative and anti-apoptotic IGF-I is implicated in the development of colorectal cancer (CRC) in both the general population and patients with acromegaly. The local intracolonic environment is also likely to be important, particularly unconjugated bile acids such as deoxycholic acid (DCA). Whilst low faecal concentrations may be proliferative, high levels are toxic to colonic epithelial cells.High levels of DCA have been linked t...

Aim: To ascertain the types of treatment, results and correlation between GH and the simultaneous IGF-1. Setting: Endocrine and Neurosurgical Unit. Methods: Endocrine and laboratory database of 17 acromegalic patients (11 male) with mean (SD) age 51(3) years and follow up 11 years. Results: Pituitary surgery 11 patients (3 twice), external radiotherapy 10 (one heavy particle therapy). GH levels have come down from a median value 32.5 mU per litre (Mean plus/minus SEM: 51.9 plu...

Background: The growth hormone/ insulin-like growth factor-1 (GH/IGF-1) axis has been increasingly implicated in the pathogenesis of breast cancer. We have recently demonstrated the local expression of both GH and IGF-I in normal and malignant breast tissue. However, the regulation of this local GH/IGF-1 expression is unknown. Aims: (i) To quantify the mRNA levels of GHRH, ghrelin and their receptors in malignant and adjacent normal breast tissue, and (ii) to determine any cor...

OBJECTIVE. Previous studies of relatives of patients with type 2 diabetes had given valuable information necessary for the current attempts towards primary prevention of diabetes. Thus, we aimed to assess the changes in anthropometric, metabolic and insulin resistance indices in a previously studied group of offspring of type 2 diabetic patients.METHOD: Twenty-three (23) previously studied offspring of patients with type 2 diabetes participated for re-assessment of diabetic ri...

Objective: To establish the prevalence of Syndrome X in women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and determine which sonographic features of PCO best predict syndrome X.Background: Recently, the third report of the USA national cholesterol education program expert-panel on the detection, evaluation and treatment of high blood cholesterol in adults specifically identified syndrome X, a combination of insulin resistance and compensatory hyperinsulinaemi...

In numerous tumour types, including those of pituitary origin, gene silencing is frequently mediated through inappropriate methylation of CpG islands. In studies designed to identify novel methylated sequences we used a technique termed arbitrarily primed methylation sensitive PCR (MsAP-PCR) to identify DNA in its hypermethylated forms. The technique relies on cutting the DNA, with methylation sensitive restriction enzymes, prior to PCR amplification. In a similar way in which...