Endocrine Abstracts

The value of mentoring by an experienced, usually older colleague, is widely acknowledged, but just as important is the value of sharing experiences, knowledge and support within a peer group. Peer-to-peer collaboration, or peer mentoring, provides opportunities for networking, friendship, education and career development and advice. Formal groupings and networks often exist locally in the form of student or postdoc societies. The Young Endocrinologists of the Society for Endo...

Electron transfer mediated by proteins is a key process in nature.Many of the proteins involved in such electron transfers are complex and may require a number of redox active cofactors. In addition the electron-transfer steps themselves may add to the complexity by being coupled to other processes such as proton transfer and re-organisational changes. This is the case in the cytochromes P450 that function as steroidogenic enzymes. In fact, these enzymes...

Apparent Mineralocorticoid Excess (AME) resulting from liquorice ingestion is rare. Liquorice is still popular, however, and must be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with hypertension and hypokalaemia.A 62 year-old woman presented with refractory hypertension (blood pressure 200/118 mmHg) and hypokalaemic alkalosis (serum K 2.98 millimoles per litre; bicarbonate 30 millimoles per litre). There was no sign of Cushing's Syndr...

Clomiphene is commonly first-line treatment for ovulation induction in women with PCOS. Clomiphene results in a rise in serum FSH concentration; its effect upon FSH glycosylation is less clear. Glycosyl components of serum gonadotrophins are important determinants of their bioactivity.We compared serum FSH glycosylation in blood samples taken from healthy women with regular ovulatory cycles (group A; n=8) and anovulatory women before (group B; ...

In women with PCOS, raised serum LH concentration is associated with lower age and BMI; converse associations are identified in women with IR. Our initial analysis of women with PCOS showed a 20–30% overlap of women with both raised serum LH concentration and IR. To investigate further the relationship between LH and IR we analysed endocrine data from a group of women diagnosed with PCOS by Rotterdam criteria. Notes of 241 women identified as having PCOS were reviewed; me...

An 18 year old nursery nurse suffered two probable seizures. She was commenced on Phenytoin. She had had a cleft palate repair. Clinical examination revealed hypertelorism and short fourth metatarsals. Early papilloedema was noted. Routine blood tests showed profound hypocalcaemia of 1.2 mmol/l. Serum phosphate , magnesium and parathormone levels were normal. She suffered a further seizure and was given intravenous calcium. She suffered no further seizures and calcium levels w...

The glycosyl components of serum gonadotrophins are important determinants of biological half life, receptor binding and bioactivity of these hormones. We have compared serum FSH glycosylation from healthy women with regular ovulatory cycles (group A; n=8) to those identified inpharmacological preparations gonadotrophins (group B merional and group C puregon). Blood samples were taken within 4 days of the onset of menstruation in the control group (group A). Pharmaceuti...

Introduction: Hypertension remains a significant co-morbidity in the population with diabetes, with a prevalence of 20–60%. In type 2 diabetes, hypertension is often present as part of the metabolic syndrome of insulin resistance. In type 1 diabetes, hypertension may reflect the onset of diabetic nephropathy.Aims: To investigate the prevalence of, and to stratify, hypertension in our diabetes clinic population. To investigate prevalence of risk fact...

Aim: To study those factors which influence the sensitivity and positive predictive value of combined MIBI scintigraphy and ultrasound scan in the localisation of parathyroid adenomas.Method: A retrospective review of notes was done of 150 patients with hypercalcaemia referred to the Endocrine outpatients’ clinic, between the years 2002–2005.Notes of 135 patients with biochemical evidence of primary hyperparathyroidism (P...

Background/objective: The prevalence of low serum TSH in the general population is in the order of 2.5–3.9%, and increases with age. True subclinical hyperthyroidism (SH) (low/suppressed serum TSH, normal serum fT4 and fT3) is less common. In one population based study of 1193 subjects, 66 (5.5%) were found to fit the criteria for SH. Of these, 75% had serum TSH 0.05–0.5 mIU/l, of whom 76% normalised within 12 months. At 12 months 87.5% subjects with serum TSH <0...