Endocrine Abstracts

Context: Phaeochromocytomas are rare, but potentially fatal, neoplasms. The diagnosis and localization of phaeochromocytoma can be challenging and recently there has been some debate regarding the role for adrenal venous sampling (AVS). The utility of AVS in this setting is hampered by a lack of normative value data for adrenal vein catecholamine concentrations and the reliability of lateralization ratios. We sought to address these concerns by analyzing AVS catecholamine conc...

Radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy is the usual treatment of choice for hyperthyroidism. We have demonstrated a success rate of 88% (euthyroidism or hypothyroidism) over a 5-year period. We are very happy to recommend RAI, however patients still express concerns.There is little literature available about patients’ reactions to RAI: to our knowledge, only two studies. We performed a survey of our RAI treated patients. Of 143 patients contacted, 87 repl...

Objective: To determine the outcome of pregnancy in hypopituitary women.Background: Rare situation, not studied enough: only two previous studies concerning 9 and 19 patients (Overton et Hall).Design: Multicentric, descriptive, prospective and retrospective study.Material and methods: Twenty-one pregnancies were registered in 14 hypopituitary women (defined as gonadotropic deficiency associated with at least ...

Introduction: The treatment of hyperthyroidism is complex. Radio-iodine administration remains the definitive option despite debate regarding optimum dosage and strategy.Method: Thyroid status in all patients receiving first dose radio-iodine over a 5 year period was reviewed at 3, 6, 12 and (most at) 24 months. Radio-iodine doses were individualised depending on thyroid gland size, co-morbidities and patient choice. The objective was euthyroidism with h...

Introduction: The hypothalamus plays a pivotal role in maintaining body temperature.Insults to the hypothalamus can result in life threatening temperature disturbance.We describe a case of hypothalamic dysfunction presenting with poikilothermia that was managed with a special portable external heating vest.Case report: A 31 year old man presented in July 1992 with a subarachnoid hemorrhage which was managed s...

A 20 yr old woman was referred for primary amenorrhea. At examination BMI was 19 and displayed a pubertal development at S4P4. Hormonal evaluation showed normal prolactin, low estradiol (18 pg/ml) and gonadotropins (LH=1.5IU; FSH=1.9 IU/L). Testosterone was normal (0.25 ng/ml) but curiously plasma progesterone (P) was increased (from 3.9 to 5 ng/ml). Initial ovarian sonography and adrenal CT scan didn’t show any abnormal mass. ACTH stimulation tests showed normal response...

Background: Phaeochromocytomas (PC) are rare tumours of chromaffin cells which may present with relatively common and non-specific symptomatology. The optimal biochemical investigation to confirm or refute the diagnosis remains unclear; some centres use fractionated plasma metanephrines, which are very sensitive but lack specificity, while others use conventional measurements of urinary metanephrines, which may be affected by concurrent drug administration and are less sensiti...

IntroductionWe aimed to establish whether Body Mass Index (BMI) affected outcomes including duration of intensive care stay and in-hospital mortality following cardiac surgery in an Irish cardiac surgery centre.MethodsA retrospective analysis of a consecutive series of 1055 cardiac surgery patients from June 2001 to June 2003 was carried out.ResultsBMI (kg/m2) dat...

A 28 years old lady presented at 21 weeks gestation with bipedal oedema and 4 week history of easy bruising and weakness and aching of the thighs. She had no significant past medical history and had prior uneventful pregnancy 17 months previously. On examination she was hypertensive (180/100 mmHg), had puffy face, prominent abdominal striae and bilateral leg oedema. Serum potassium was 2.6 mmol/l and random plasma glucose was 8.6 mmol/l. OGTT confirmed gestational diabetes and...

Her-2/neu over-expression is associated with elevated tumorigenicity and enhanced metastatic potential. Recently a DNA motif containing the consensus binding site of PEA3, a member of the ets transcription factor family has been identified on the Her-2/neu promoter. Activation of the PEA3 response element has been proposed to be involved in the transcriptional squelching of Her-2/neu.Methods: Using RT-PCR we have determined PEA3 mRNA expression in human breast tissue and l...