Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Women with PCOS share the underlying pathology of insulin resistance with diabetes, metabolic syndrome and have increased prevalence of obesity. Despite these well established risk factors data on long term cardiovascular outcomes are limited and conflicting.Methodology: Retrospective analysis of a multi-ethnic database of all women with PCOS attending one UK endocrine unit between 1988 and 2009. Cardiovascular (CV) events were identified b...

Introduction: Most (89%) UK units offer some form of free patient choice for new paediatric patients commencing GH therapy. Initial data indicates that patient choice improves adherence, resulting in improved growth (height velocity) short-term.Objective: To compare outcome measures between patients offered free choice and/or hospital supply (including home services and adherence tracking assessed using ampoule counting) with GH therapy with those who di...

Global encephalopathy is a rare complication of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. It typically presents with seizures, ataxia and tremors and responds to steroid therapy. Limbic encephalitis (LE) is even less well described in paediatric population. It presents with medio-temporal lobe symptoms (memory impairment, temporal lobe seizures and disturbances of affect) caused by inflammation within the hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus, insular and cingulate cortex. LE most commonly ...

Essential hypertension is known to have a large genetic component. Variation in the CYP11B2 gene, which encodes the aldosterone synthase enzyme, is associated with excess aldosterone production and hypertension but the causative mechanism remains elusive. miRNAs are a class of post-transcriptional regulatory molecules, implicated in cardiovascular disease, development and tumourogenesis. They act by targeting the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of mRNAs, inhibiting t...

Cannabinoids are known to exert effects throughout the endocrine system, including in the anterior pituitary. Whilst cannabinoid receptors (CB1 in particular) are expressed in numerous tissues, expression and function of an endocannabinoid system within specific anterior cell types has not been investigated. We have used well-characterised gonadotroph (LβT2 and αT3-1) and somatolactotroph (GH3) cell lines to establish the expression and functional role for cannabinoi...

Aim: In chronic kidney disease (CKD) elevated aldosterone (Aldo) levels are a poor prognostic indicator, particularly in the context of a high dietary sodium intake, through unclear mechanisms. Blockade of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) improves surrogate patient outcomes. We hypothesised that regulation of aldosterone biosynthesis is disordered in CKD and aimed to compare this in a cohort of patients with CKD with subjects with essential hypertension (EH).<p class="a...

Background: Increased childhood cancer survival has resulted in an accruing adult cohort faced with potential infertility. Pre-treatment semen cryopreservation can protect reproductive capacity in adolescent minors, but continued unique legal, ethical and educational barriers prevent consistent service provision across the UK. The effect of pubertal maturation, disease and treatment on the ability to produce sperm also remains poorly defined in this cohort. We present our 10-y...

In humans Growth Hormone Receptor (GHR) transcripts exist in two isoforms, the full-length (GHRfl) or exon 3 deletion isoform (GHRd3). Individuals with the GHRd3 isoform are associated with an increased response to recombinant human GH. The d3/fl-GHR polymorphism does not influence adult height. However, an association with the d3/fl-GHR polymorphism has been found with antenatal growth especially in small for gestational age (SGA) infants. H...

A 68-year-old female was found to have a supra sellar mass on CT scanning for investigation of long-standing tremor. She had experienced thirst, polydipsia, polyuria, nocturia and malaise for 1 year. Primary hypothyroidism had been diagnosed 5 years earlier. A left temporal visual field defect found 3 years earlier had been attributed to a structural anomaly of the optic nerve head. MR scanning confirmed the presence of a mass lesion of the infundibulum with displacement of th...

Introduction: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine abnormality in women with an estimated prevalence of 6–8%. Women with PCOS have a known increased prevalence of prediabetes (30–40%), type 2 diabetes (T2DM 10%), and metabolic syndrome (40%). We determined the prevalence of recorded PCOS through a structured primary care based T2DM screening programme.Methodology: Eligibility criterion for a structured and systematic sc...