Endocrine Abstracts

Context: Growth of meningiomas has been previously described in patients receiving oestrogen/progestogen therapy.Methods: Case history, laboratory findings, imaging and histology are discussed.Case history: A 45-year-old woman with a known history of 21-hydroxyase deficiency (of the non-salt wasting variety) and long-standing non-adherence with corticosteroid therapy presented to the Endocrine Clinic for follow-up care. She complai...

Aminobisphosphonates impair osteoclast cell function and reduce bone remodelling rate. It has been speculated that atypical femoral fractures in patients on bisphosphonates are the result of impaired bone remodelling.The primary aim of this prospective study was to assess levels of bone remodelling in patients with osteoporosis on aminobisphosphonate therapy by measurement of bone turnover markers. The secondary aim was to assess the adequacy of concomit...

In young patients osteoporosis is associated with endocrine and inflammatory conditions. Early identification of osteoporosis may reduce later morbidity.We aimed to establish the aetiology of low bone mineral density (LBMD) in young patients at our centre. We identified risk factors and impact of gender on BMD in a young at-risk cohort.All patients between 20 and 55 years old who underwent DXA scan between 2004 and 2009 were identi...

Historically, the 131I whole body scan played a central role in the assessment of disease status in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer.In 2006, the European Thyroid Cancer Taskforce published a new Consensus Statement. It favoured the use of stimulated serum thyroglobulin measurement and neck ultrasound for follow up of disease activity. The use of diagnostic 131I whole body scan was no longer recommended as a routine test....

Patients with craniopharyngioma have increased mortality attributed to cardiorespiratory disease, when compared to other hypopituitary populations. There is little data on the cause for excess of fatal respiratory disease in this condition. Clinical observation had identified sleep apnoea in some craniopharyngioma patients in our cohort. Sleep apnoea increases cerebrovascular and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Our hypothesis was that sleep apnoea could be a contributo...

Differentiation between non functioning pituitary macroadenomas (NFPA) and prolactinomas may be difficult as hyperprolactinaemia can also be present at diagnosis in NFPA cases due to pituitary stalk compression (disconnection hyperprolactinaemia). Some authors suggested that prolactin >2,000 mIU/l is almost diagnostic of a prolactinoma, while others use a higher cut-off of >5000 mIU/l. Our aim was to identify the level of prolactin above which a prolactinoma was more l...

Studies on the probability of recurrence of surgically treated but radiotherapy (RT) naïve non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFPA) are inconsistent and selective as cases deemed to be at high risk of recurrence were prophylactically irradiated. We traditionally used very low rate of post-operative RT leaving us with a largely unselected cohort.We identified 223 surgically resected, histology-proven NFPA cases. Only 9% received post-operative RT an...

FPLD is a rare monogenic cause of insulin resistance. We document responses to treatment with metformin in 2 adolescent sisters with FPLD due to heterozygosity for R482W LMNA gene mutation.The probands, aged 14 and 16 years, presented with secondary amenorrhoea, hirsutism and progressive acanthosis nigricans. Phenotypically they showed central obesity, nuchal enlargement, and thin muscular arms. These changes occurred post-pubertally. Anthrpometri...

GPR54 is a G protein coupled receptor identified in 2001 as the target for kisspeptin, the product of the KiSS-1 gene. Mutations in both kisspeptin and GPR54 lead to inherited failure to enter puberty (idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism) in the human, and a mutant mouse line with a targeted disruption of the Gpr54 receptor (Gpr54 -/-) has shown the same phenotype.Puberty begins when neurons in the hypothalamus begin pulsatile secretion of Gn...

Introduction: The prevalence of abnormal liver function tests (LFTs) in the general population has been estimated to be 8.1–9.8%. Abnormal LFTs are common in diabetes although there are still few studies describing the exact prevalence. AST-to-platelet-ratio-index (APRI) and Fibrosis-4-score (FIB4) are scoring systems which can be used to estimate the degree of liver fibrosis. An APRI score >1 has a sensitivity of 76% and a specificity of 72% for predicting cirrhosis ...