Endocrine Abstracts

A recently published meta-analysis has demonstrated a significant beneficial effect on exercise performance of growth hormone (GH) replacement in GH-deficient (GHD) adults. The current meta-analysis was carried out to determine whether GH replacement confers a similar improvement in muscle strength in this patient group. A medline search and examination of reference lists of included studies and relevant review articles identified five studies with utilizable, robust data, inv...

Growth hormone (GH) replacement in GH-deficient adults exerts clear effects on body composition, but there is a lack of high-quality evidence concerning its functional effects which may be clinically more important. This meta-analysis is carried out to determine the effects of GH replacement on exercise performance. A Medline search and examination of reference lists of included studies and relevant review articles identified 11 studies with utilizable, robust data, involving ...

A 31 year-old woman is referred into the Endocrine clinic with a palpable mass in her right anterior neck that was found incidentally by her GP. She had no known past medical history, did not take any medications and had not noticed any dysphagia, neck pain, or compressive symptoms. On clinical exam, there was an enlarged thyroid with a 1.5-cm left-sided thyroid nodule that moved on swallowing. There was no palpable cervical lymphadenopathy. TSH was 2.5 mIU/l (0.29–5.1 mI...

Background: Thyroid carcinoma consists of just 1% of all malignancies but is the commonest malignant endocrine tumour. Papillary thyroid carcinoma is the most common form of thyroid carcinoma consisting of 80% of all cases. There are very few case reports in the literature of papillary thyroid cancers presenting with distant to the pelvic organs. Distant metastases are noted in 1–3% of patients with thyroid cancer at initial diagnosis.Clinical case:...

Atheroma is accelerated in overt hypothyroidism (OH) and possibly in subclinical-hypothyroidism (SCH), and is not completely explained by increased LDL-cholesterol. There is little data available regarding post-prandial metabolic changes in OH or SCH.Subjects with OH (n=21), SCH (n=28) and age, sex and BMI matched controls (n=50) were studied fasting and for up to 8-h following a mixed-meal. Investigations included apolipoprotein(apo...

Pseudohypoparathyroidism type 1b is a disorder of calcium metabolism resulting from renal resistance to PTH, the genetic basis caused by abnormal imprinting and thus expression of the gene encoding the Gs alpha-subunit (GSα) of the stimulatory G protein.For patients with PHP 1b, pregnancy raises issues regarding management of calcium and vitamin D homeostasis as well as more difficult aspects such as genetic counselling.<p class="abst...

Macroprolactin has reduced bioactivity and accumulates in the sera of some subjects, resulting in apparent hyperprolactinaemia. Development of the polyethyleneglycol (PEG) precipitation technique has enabled large-scale screening for macroprolactin in hyperprolactinaemic subjects. We have reviewed the experience of routine screening for macroprolactin using PEG precipitation over a 54-month period in a single centre.Plasma levels of prolactin exceeded 50...

Since the thyroid is diffusely active in Graves' disease (GD) but exhibits focal activity in toxic nodular goitre (TNG), we tested the hypothesis that hypothyroidism will occur more frequently following radioactive iodine treatment (RAI), in patients with GD compared to those with TNG. To do this we reviewed the outcome of treatment in 86 patients, age 49.7 plus/minus 1.5 years (mean plus/minus SEM), with GD, and 77 patients, age 62.7 plus/minus 1.3 years, with TNG, followed o...

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important complication of diabetes and determinant of mortality. Albuminuria represents early diabetic nephropathy, and also indicates generalised vascular dysfunction. Understanding the epidemiology of CKD and albuminuria helps inform health planning and identify opportunities to prevent or delay progression of diabetic kidney disease. The last available serum creatinine and urine albumin/creatinine ratio (UACR) in patients with Type 1 (T1DM...

Introduction: Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) is a genetic syndrome usually diagnosed in childhood. Its reported prevalence ranges from one in 8000 to one in 45 000 with geographical variation. Clinical manifestations include obesity, hyperphagia, short stature, incomplete sexual development, and cognitive disabilities. The majority of published data regarding PWS comes from paediatric populations.Materials and methods: This is a retrospective observati...