Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: To determine the aetiology of Addison’s disease in patients admitted to a tertiary care hospital in South India from 2001 to 2007.Method: Forty-five patients with Addison’s disease were admitted during this period. Etiological work up was carried out in all these patients.Results: Thirteen patients (29%) had a possible infectious cause: 11.1% histoplasmosis, 8.8% confirmed tuberculosis, 4.4% presumed tuberculosis, 4...

Pancreatic endocrine tumours (PETs) have a low proliferation index and this partially accounts for their lack of response to chemotherapy. The assessment of proliferation rates relies largely on the use of markers such as Ki67 in patients, and uptake of DNA nucleotide precursors such as tritiated thymidine or 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) in animals. Amongst these, BrdU is recognised to be the most reliable marker of cell proliferation as it allows the substitution of an endog...

D cells comprise 3–10% of the human endocrine pancreas and secrete somatostatin, which inhibits cell proliferation and hormone secretion. Pancreatic tumours secreting somatostatin are associated with the somatostatinoma syndrome, which is characterised by hyperglycaemia, cholethiasis, a low acid output and anaemia. We have examined for the presence of somatostatin secreting cells in pancreatic tumours from a multiple endocrine neoplastic type 1 (MEN1) knockout mouse model...

Context: Rimonabant has been found to reduce weight and improve the metabolic profile in patients with metabolic syndrome as well as PCOS.Objective: To compare the effects of metformin and rimonabant in patients with PCOS with and without metabolic syndrome according to ATP III criteria.Design: A randomised open labelled parallel study comparing the effects on rimonabant and metformin in patients with PCOS.Su...

The clinical diagnostic examination of patients and the research-oriented investigation of the pathophysiology of skeletal disorders require imaging techniques that allow to visualize the skeleton at different scales: from the organ level to tissue, cellular, and subcellular levels, depicting morphology and function. Progress in the field of imaging technologies resulted in methods suited for clinical investigation of patients in vivo, non-invasive methods for preclinical anim...

Many single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the RET gene have been described both in the general population and in patients with sporadic medullary thyroid cancer (sMTC), MEN2 or Hirschsprung disease. Some association studies reported a higher prevalence of these variants in the affected patients, suggesting a possible role in modifying the risk of occurrence of the disease. However, data from different cohorts of sMTC are discrepant and the aim of the present study ...

Prediction of the biological behavior in non-functioning pituitary adenomas (NFPA) according to morphological criteria is highly inaccurate. Reliable prognostic molecular markers could be useful in providing guidance in NFPA post-surgical follow-up.Aim: To identify differentially expressed genes between aggressive and non-aggressive NFPAs and to assess their prognostic value.Methods: Samples analyzed were selected from a series of ...

The melanocortin-2-receptor accessory protein (MRAP) is a type I integral transmembrane protein required for the functional expression of the melanocortin-2-receptor (MC2R).Here we have investigated the expression and biochemical properties of mouse MRAP. Initially, mouse MRAP and MC2R tissue expression were determined by RT-PCR, being only present in the adrenal gland and fat tissue. Then, by in situ hybridisation studies using a full-length MRAP...

In patients with pituitary disease stimulation tests, such as the insulin tolerance test, are performed as tests of the HPA axis and widely used as the basis for commencing hydrocortisone replacement therapy.We conducted a pilot study to investigate the relationship between the peak cortisol response to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia and daily CPR. Isotopic CPRs were studied in 10 patients (5 male, mean age 44±13 years) with pituitary disease and a s...

AimsTo define the prevalence of hyponatraemia (serum sodium <135 mmol/l) on our medical admissions unit and review the laboratory investigations, diagnosis and management of patients with critical or severe hyponatraemia (serum sodium <120 mmol/l).MethodsSerum sodium levels requested from the medical admissions unit over a six-month period were retrospectively collated. Case notes and biochemistry dat...