Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common endocrine conditions affecting women of reproductive age. Current estimates place the condition as more common than Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). Recent studies have shown several long term comorbidities associated with PCOS, thus making it essential that all physicians, regardless of training and speciality, understand and empower women with PCOS to adopt evidence-based behavioural changes. This study se...

42 insulin related incidents were reported within our Trust in 2014. Subsequent Root Cause Analysis revealed numerous insulin errors, hyperglycemia mismanagement and highlighted significant deficits in diabetes knowledge amongst nursing staff. To address the above issues, new safety interventions were introduced and five key outcomes are:1. A new stand-alone insulin prescription chart introduced May’15 has seen insulin incidents dec...

Introduction: Neonatal ambiguous genitalia can herald sensitive, time-critical, and life-threatening diagnoses and thus paediatric doctors must be competent in their management. However, ambiguous genitalia are rare, limiting clinical exposure. We assessed paediatric doctors’ knowledge of and confidence in managing this condition.Methods: A questionnaire was circulated to paediatric doctors at six paediatric teaching hospitals. It established doctor...

Background: Knowledge of glucocorticoid use during acute illness is widely known, however, knowledge of Diabetes Insipidus (DI) is suboptimal amongst healthcare professionals. In 2009, a series of medical and management failures led to the death of 22 year old from DI in a London hospital. Since then increased efforts have been made to raise awareness about the inpatient management of DI and dangers associated with delay and/or omission of desmopressin. An NHS England patient ...

Background: Accurate evaluation of growth is a key assessment of child health, in the UK use of a paper growth chart is currently standard practice. Our trust had a drive to become paper light thus there needed to be a way to store growth data electronically. Growth data is often incompletely documented. A previous review of children’s outpatient attendances at our hospital found that across medical, surgical and tertiary specialties only 33% of children had growth data d...

Background: Hyponatraemia is known to be associated with significantly increased mortality in hospitalised patients. We identified the number of cases of hyponatraemia referred for an endocrine opinion in our hospital, examined the causes present, and assessed how the speed of referral to endocrinology could affect the management. Methods: Inpatient referrals were audited over a 6-month period from 1st October 2021 to 30th April 2022. Data regarding the ...

Background: Thyrotoxicosis is a common endocrine disorder in the UK, with a prevalence of 2% in females and 0.2% in men. Endocrine services at Barnet / Chase Farm Hospitals receive ~250 new referrals per year, equating to a local incidence of 50 per 100,000. There is often a significant delay between GP referral and Endocrine clinic review, resulting in delays to commencing anti-thyroid treatment. These delays have been exacerbated by the Covid crisis. A need was identified fo...

Background: Adrenal crisis is a potentially life-threatening situation which can affect any patient with adrenal insufficiency (AI). Patients with AI and healthcare professionals looking after them should know the sick day rules and when and how to use parenteral hydrocortisone. Patient stories and feedback from patients with AI indicated low standards locally. We therefore aimed to empower patients through education and provide them with a hydrocortisone emergency kit.<p ...

Background: Measuring testicular volumes by orchidometer is a standard method of pubertal staging in boys. A paucity of evidence exists as to its inter and intra-observer reliability and the impact of clinicians gender, experience and training on the accuracy of measurements. We are developing specifically engineered models with different testicular volumes to investigate inter and intra-observer reliability of testicular volume estimation for simulation training.<p class=...

Pseudohypoglycemia has been reported in patients with Raynaud’s phenomenon, peripheral vascular disease and shock and may result from increased glucose extraction by the tissues because of low capillary flow and increased glucose transit time. We present a frail and comorbid 76-year-old lady with a long standing history of Rheumatoid arthritis/systemic sclerosis/systemic lupus erythematosis overlap syndrome complicated by Raynaud’s phenomenon. She was on long-term st...