Endocrine Abstracts

Case: A 35 year old lady was found to be hypertensive following a blood pressure check in view of her oral contraceptive pill use. Because of her young age she was referred to the Hypertension Clinic. She underwent a renal ultrasound as part of the screening for end organ damage in view of her drug-resistant hypertension. The ultrasound- and subsequent CT imaging- revealed a 2.8 cm left adrenal mass measuring 44 Hounsfield Units. She denied any palpitations or headaches but di...

Annual reports have been provided to the UK Acromegaly Database on 72 patients seen in Aberdeen during the past decade (41 women, mean age at diagnosis 47 yrs, mean GH at diagnosis 59 mU/l and 60% with macroadenomas). Thirty percent had glucose intolerance and 33% hypertension. Fifty-eight percent underwent surgery, 36% external radiotherapy (XRT, either alone or as adjuvant therapy) and 17% primary medical therapy (PMT, 4 had declined surgery). Thirty-seven percent are curren...

Adrenal insufficiency is often under recognised which leads to adrenal crisis and death if not treated promptly. The NHS Improvement national patient safety alert (NatPSA) identified several actions an organisation needs to implement including introduction of the new steroid emergency card, identifying the patients at risk of adrenal insufficiency and those who require adrenal function assessment. This is also endorsed by Healthcare Improvement Scotland....

Empty sella is an incidental finding characterised by the herniation of subarachnoid space into the sella turcica with resultant flattening of pituitary gland to varying extent. It was considered benign. But recent reviews have shown its association with some neuroendocrinopathies.Aims and Objectives: To determine if patients with radiological diagnosis of PESS were;1. Referred to Endocrinology team?2. What p...

Introduction: Pituitary disorders are associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Data on the prevalence of pituitary disorders is scarce. Formal routine coding of diagnoses in outpatient endocrine practice lags behind medical coding of inpatients. Standardised coding could improve our understanding of disease burden and highlight areas of increasing need within our services.Objective: Automatically extract and assign SNOMED codes for endocrine di...

Phaeochromocytomas (PC) are tumours of the adrenal medulla and paragangliomas (PGL) refer to their extra-adrenal counterpart arising from sympathetic or parasympathetic tissue. Mutations in the citric acid cycle enzyme succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) predispose to PC/PGL. Clinical practice guidelines suggest that plasma metanephrine and normetanephrine levels measured in the supine position should be used in the first instance for biochemical diagnosis, and those with positive r...

Background: Generally Endocrinologists strive to diagnose conditions biochemically prior to radiological investigation. Pituitary incidentalomas are observed in 10% of pituitary MRIs and together with stress induced hyperprolactinaemia, 10–20% of patients receive dopamine agonists (DAs) without a definite diagnosis. Menstrual imbalance is a common symptom of hyperprolactinaemia which can have multiple origins (e.g. hypothalamic, pituitary or ovarian). DAs have side effect...

Widespread use of CT and MRI scan has led to the identification of incidental adrenal tumours. The need to determine functionality often results in a battery of investigations that are a drain to scarce resources and are frequently normal. Studies to identify tumour radiological features that suggest functionality and hence enable targeted investigations are few in the literature. To this effect we set out to analyse which features on imaging that are best predictive of functi...

Exogenous glucocorticoids lead to suppression of the HPA axis via negative feedback on the hypothalamus and pituitary and may be associated with increased morbidity and mortality (Wei L. Ann Intern Med. 2004). Many patients whose steroids are no longer required for their underlying disease find withdrawal challenging. Presentations: Case 1: 68-year old male treated with steroids for hepatic graft versus host disease following a stem cell transplant for EBV-lymphoproliferative ...

Introduction: Radioactive iodine (RAI) is a commonly used treatment modality in Graves’ hyperthyroidism. Patient choice is a major factor in advising radioiodine but there are few data on patient satisfaction following treatment.Method: QuestionnaireAn anonymised questionnaire was distributed to 100 individuals on the thyroid register with RAI treated Graves’ hyperthyroidism. The survey included questions relating to side...