Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Aminoglycoside exposure may result in hypomagnesemia, hypocalcaemia and hypokalemia. We describe a case of severe hypomagnesemia due to gentamicin therapy.Case report: A 46-year-old lady presented with ‘pins and needles’ and muscle cramps two weeks after being treated with gentamicin for biliary sepsis. Trosseau and chovstek signs were positive. Investigations showed hypokalemia, hypocalcaemia and hypomagnesemia (0.25 mmol/l (0.74...

Objective: Aromatase deficiency in mice or men prevents conversion of androgens to oestrogens and results in central obesity and insulin resistance. In idiopathic obesity, higher aromatase mRNA levels in adipose tissue predict peripheral rather than central fat distribution, but any contribution of aromatase to metabolic complications is unknown. Here, we measured plasma steroids in a large cohort of men and post-menopausal women, in whom aromatase is the major source of oestr...

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...

Aim: To asses the significance of single 60 min serum cortisol level compared to conventional approach in short synacthen test (SST).Methods: Retrospective analysis of cortisol values in SST. Serum cortisol values at baseline, 30 min and 60 min were recorded. Rise of serum cortisol level to >550 nmol/l and a rise of >200 nmol/l from baseline is considered to be a negative test for hypoadrenalism.Results: About 168 patients ...

Introduction: We report a case of adrenal insufficiency as the first clinical manifestation of antiphospholipid syndrome.Case report: A 56-year-old male with no previous history of thrombosis was admitted with 3 stone weight loss and feeling generally unwell. He was hypotensive, pigmented and had a slate grey pigmentation of the nose. Chest auscultation revealed reduced breath sounds. Investigations revealed low sodium and high potassium levels with meta...

Introduction: Hypothyroid myopathy with moderate elevation of muscle enzymes is not uncommon. However rhabdomyolysis and acute renal failure due hypothyroidism is rare and only few cases have reported. We describe a patient with rhabdomyolysis due to primary hypothyroidism.Case report: A 45-year-old male was admitted with 6 weeks history of generalised muscle weakness. He described his gait as ‘walking like a drunk’ in the absence of alcohol. H...

Many glucocorticoid (Gc) actions are of rapid onset, and therefore require acute regulation of intracellular signalling cascades. We have previously identified rapid Gc-dependent activation of the caveolae specific integral membrane protein caveolin, and the cytosolic kinase PKB in the lung epithelial cells, A549.Immunofluorescence studies demonstrate the appearance of activated glucocorticoid receptor (P-ser211-GR) localised to focal points around the c...

Delayed puberty may occur in some boys affected with X-linked Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tarda (SEDT), which is caused by mutations of the gene encoding a 140 amino acid protein designated Sedlin. Sedlin interacts with the pituitary homeobox 1 (Pitx1) and steroidogenic factor 1 (SF1) transcription factors, which are involved in the development and regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. We have therefore investigated the hypothesis that SEDT associated mutatio...

Good growth in children is associated with large, disordered, fluctuations in GH levels from week to week (Gill et al., 1999; Gill et al., 2001). However, GH treatment regimens are restricted to daily fixed doses which may not provide optimal growth. We have used GH-deficient dwarf rats (dw/dw) to test our hypothesis that variable GH dosing will enhance growth.Six week old, male dwarf rats (16 per group) were treated for 6 weeks with either...

Children diagnosed with either Growth Hormone deficiency (GHD) or Turner syndrome (TS) are both treated with GH titrated against either weight or area. The response to such treatment however, is highly variable and, at least in part, diagnosis dependent. The precise mechanisms underlying this variability are unknown. As basal GH levels differ between GHD and TS and, as GH elicits its effects through changes in gene expression, the basal gene expression profiles of GHD and TS s...