Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: One of the often-discussed topics in the management guidelines for Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) is the ideal time gap that should exist between patient check-ups. A period of three to six months is usually recommended, which sometimes is difficult to achieve due to the high number of patients. But to what extent does the time gap between appointments in the follow-up of T1DM patients affect their diabetes’ control?Objectives: To kn...

Background: It is apparent that COVID-19 may cause persistent symptoms beyond 12 weeks (‘long COVID’). However its underlying pathophysiology is unclear. Several symptoms of long COVID draw similarities to that of endocrine diagnoses. We recently observed that adrenal and thyroid function were normal in survivors of COVID-19 at follow-up. Here we assess additional endocrine axes that could plausibly have a role in long COVID to determine their relationship to ongoing...

Introduction: Free ionised calcium is the biologically active component of total circulating calcium but is infrequently measured due to sampling requirements. Therefore, total calcium is ‘adjusted’ for albumin to provide a closer estimate of the biologically active ionised calcium level (e.g. James, Orell, Payne and Berry formulae). Here, we aim to derive a novel equation to estimate ionised calcium from readily available biochemical parameters and compare its perfo...

Section 1: Case history: A 19-year-old British-Asian man presented with a two-year history of gynaecomastia. He had no other symptoms of hypogonadism. He had an unremarkable past medical history, did not take any regular medications and denied the use of any illicit drugs. There was a family history of consanguinity, with his parents being first cousins. On examination, his BMI was 28 kg/m2 and he had post-pubertal-sized testes (20 ml) with normal secondary sexual c...

Case: A 19-year-old British-Asian man presented with a two-year history of gynaecomastia. He had no other symptoms of hypogonadism. On examination, BMI was 28 kg/m2 and he had post-pubertal-sized testes (20 ml) with normal secondary sexual characteristics. Hypogonadism was confirmed by two morning fasting total testosterone levels of 4.7 and 5.2 (RR 9.2–31.6 nmol/l). Haemoglobin was normal (152 g/l) and serum oestradiol was <100 pmol/l. He had inappropriate...

Significant knowledge gaps exist regarding the humanistic effects of hypoparathyroidism, a rare, debilitating disorder. We report results from a global survey to characterise the burden of hypoparathyroidism from the patient perspective. An anonymous survey was conducted in patients with uncontrolled chronic hypoparathyroidism (as determined by patients’ report of persistent symptoms and/or poorly controlled calcium levels as told by their physician) despite receiving con...

PARADIGHM™ is a global registry (NCT01922440) of patients diagnosed with hypoparathyroidism (HPT) ≥6 months regardless of aetiology and management. Routine medical care data were entered using electronic case report forms; the 36-item Short Form Health Survey was completed by patients. Baseline-recorded data are reported for 492 patients enrolled as of 1 December 2016 from 41 centres. At baseline, 78% were women, mean (S.D.) age was 49 (17)...

Hypoparathyroidism, a rare disorder characterized by absent or low levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH), often results from thyroid surgery. However, nonsurgical etiologies are present in >10% of patients. Data about this group of patients are limited.In this post hoc REPLACE (NCT00732615, EudraCT2008-005063-34) analysis, baseline characteristics and response to 50–100 μg/day rhPTH(1-84) in patients with postsurgical or nonsurgical ...

Background: During IVF treatment, a pharmacological dose of recombinant FSH (rFSH) is used to induce multi-follicular growth (controlled ovarian stimulation; COS). An insufficient dose of rFSH negatively impacts the number of oocytes retrieved, whereas an excessive dose risks the potentially life-threatening complication ‘ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome’. Hence, appropriate rFSH dosing is regarded as a key treatment decision affecting both the success and safety of...

Background: Acromegaly (Acro) is associated with adverse psychopathological and personality outcomes despite being in remission for over a decade. We hypothesised that persistently poor psychological outcomes may be associated with morphometric changes experienced by Acro patients.Methodology: We compared 60 consecutive non-functioning adenoma (NFA) and Acro patients who had undergone pituitary surgery and/or radiation therapy (RT). A gender-specific vis...