Endocrine Abstracts

Historically, the 131I whole body scan played a central role in the assessment of disease status in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer.In 2006, the European Thyroid Cancer Taskforce published a new Consensus Statement. It favoured the use of stimulated serum thyroglobulin measurement and neck ultrasound for follow up of disease activity. The use of diagnostic 131I whole body scan was no longer recommended as a routine test....

Context and objective: During fasting growth hormone (GH) promotes lipolysis, attenuates glucose oxidation and preserves protein. Previous studies have primarily been conducted in GH deficient patients or during somatostatin-suppression of GH secretion. We aimed to study the impact of the fasting associated increase in GH without concomitant changes in other hormones, by the means of GH receptor (GHR) blockade.Design: Ten healthy young men participated i...

Background: Birth weight has been associated with low bone mass in later life. Previous studies, however, have relied on self-reported data on birth weight, included select populations, or been of a limited size. Moreover, it is unclear if the association between birth weight and bone mass is be mediated by body weight, lean body mass, or fat mass.Aim: We hypothesize that birth weight is associated with peak bone mass in men independent of current lean b...

Background: Fasting is associated with suppression of IGF-I production, which is likely to be the stimulator of GH secretion and the subsequent increase in lipolysis. The GH signalling events subserving this switch in the actions of GH have not been studied.Aim: To assess whole body substrate metabolism and GH signalling proteins in skeletal muscle and fat in healthy human subjects in the postabsorptive state and after 38 h of fasting.<p class="abste...

Background: The identification of MRAP in 2005 as the first melanocortin-2-receptor (MC2R)/ACTH receptor accessory protein provided insight into the regulation of the melanocortin receptor system. Mutations in MRAP cause Familial glucocorticoid deficiency, an autosomal recessive disorder resulting in isolated cortisol deficiency. In vitro studies showed that MRAP was essential for the functional expression of the MC2R. The melanocortin receptor (MCR) family (MC1R to MC5...

Introduction: It is not known if non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) predates type 2 diabetes. We will study the prevalence of NAFLD in women with previous gestational diabetes (GDM), a population at ≥60% risk for the development of type 2 diabetes, while glucose tolerance is non-diabetic. It is not known if hepatic fat accumulation in NAFLD is disproportionate to fat accumulation in other tissues. We aim to study the association between fat in the liver and in tis...

No guidelines exist for the management of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) in adults. With no ideal glucocorticoid regimen to replicate normal physiology, best practice remains unclear. Concerns have been raised regarding overtreatment, particularly with longer acting steroids, and potential adverse effects on body composition and bone mineral density (BMD).We examined the case records of all 35 patients currently under review in our unit. Mean±...

Background: Over the last 20 years there have been significant advances in stem cell transplantation (SCT) in adults for haematological malignancies leading to improved survival. Endocrine disorders are among the most common complications in survivors after hematopoietic allogeneic stem cell transplant (HSCT), but data on adult transplant patients are still scarce.Methods: This is a retrospective study which included 284 adult patients (94 females and 19...

Mutations in the RET gene are responsible for Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 2A (MEN2A), characterised by Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma (MTC) and Pheochromocytoma (PCC). It is well recognised that there is a genotype-phenotype correlation regarding likelihood of endocrine tumour development. The American Thyroid Association (ATA) has published predictive grading to guide clinical management of patients with RET mutations.Aim: In this study, we aim to as...

Introduction: The prevalence of abnormal liver function tests (LFTs) in the general population has been estimated to be 8.1–9.8%. Abnormal LFTs are common in diabetes although there are still few studies describing the exact prevalence. AST-to-platelet-ratio-index (APRI) and Fibrosis-4-score (FIB4) are scoring systems which can be used to estimate the degree of liver fibrosis. An APRI score >1 has a sensitivity of 76% and a specificity of 72% for predicting cirrhosis ...