Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Suboptimal glycaemic control in hospital inpatients is related to poor clinical outcomes and longer hospital stay. The aims of this study were to document the prevalence and severity of hypo- and hyperglycaemia in medical inpatients and to evaluate aspects of patient management and staff proficiency regarding glucose management.Methods: We performed a retrospective review of 21 381 capillary blood glucose results in 1496 unique patients on 26...

Background and aims: Non-adherence to daily subcutaneous GH (r-HGH) administration may account for discrepancies between dose prescription, growth response and serum IGF1 levels but is difficult to determine. The electronic r-HGH auto-injector Easypod device has the only inbuilt retrievable dosing record, with which we aimed to assess adherence.Method: Over a 4 month period, we retrospectively retrieved dose history data in 25 clinic patients aged 10&#15...

We are all prisoners of our faulted personalities, but only primary psychopaths use theirs systematically to target or imprison others. They lack the capacity to empathise, something normal people develop from early childhood. Considering people as objects, psychopaths survive by preying on what seems an incomprehensible weakness of normally empathic people. The condition of primary psychopathy is linked to lifelong dystunction of the amygdala, at the brain’s emotional co...

New UK growth charts using the new WHO standard for children from birth to four years should now be used for all babies born in England after May 11th 2009 (October 2009 in Scotland).The WHO charts for the first time describe optimal rather than average growth, set breast feeding as the norm and are suitable for all ethnic groups. UK children fit the new charts well for length and height but will look appear relatively heavier by the age of one. This wil...

Androgen excess is a key feature of the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which affects 5–10% of the female population and comes with a significantly increased metabolic risk. Rare disorders often teach us important lessons about common disease and this is highlighted by two novel variants of congenital adrenal hyperplasia we recently identified.In 1985, a patient with combined deficiencies of 17-hydroxylase and 21-hydroxylase was reported. However,...

Objective: Unexplained infertility is 15% among all infertility cases. Many forms of stress, including psychological and physical can effect male fertility and reproductive activity. In this study, we aimed to investigate possible histopathological effects of physical and psychological stress on rat testis at light microscopic level.Methods: Eight adult, male Sprague Dawley rats were used in this study. Rats were randomly divided as control (n=4) ...

Introduction: At the start of insulin pump therapy usually only a single basal rate, one insulin correction factor and one carbohydrate ratio are prescribed. Not only does this approach fail to match normal physiology but experience gained over 5 years of providing an insulin pump service found that these settings invariably needed early and frequent adjustment. As a result algorithms were developed to give a more precise pattern of basal rates and correction factors.<p cl...

We examined the functional significance of the glutamatergic innervation of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DR) in the mediation of the suckling stimulus inducing prolactin release. A non-NMDA (6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione disodium, CNQX) or an NMDA glutamate receptor antagonist (dizocilpine hydrogen malate, MK-801) was injected into the DR of freely moving lactating rats at the end of 4 h separation. The litters were then returned and blood samples for prolactin were taken ...

DHEA and its sulfate ester DHEAS are the major steroids secreted by the adrenal zona reticularis. DHEA exerts its action either indirectly in peripheral target tissues following its conversion to potent sex steroids or directly as a neurosteroid. Moreover, there is growing evidence of high affinity binding sites on endothelial cells and lymphocytes suggestive of the presence of a specific DHEA receptor. Studies in patients with adrenal insufficiency (AI) have elucidated the ro...

In severe sepsis circulating DHEA sulfate (DHEAS) has been shown to decrease whilst serum cortisol increases. This has led to the suggestion of an intraadrenal shift from adrenal androgen towards glucocorticoid synthesis in severe stress. Patients with sepsis are therefore assumed to be DHEA deficient and have been suggested to benefit from DHEA replacement. However, only desulfated DHEA is biologically active and DHEAS and DHEA may not freely interconvert as previously though...