Endocrine Abstracts

Managing diabetes as a chronic health condition is never ending and many young people, especially teenagers, would like a ‘day off’. Managing diabetes alongside the normal rigours of adolescence means that the struggle with independence and acceptance of responsibility can have a knock-on impact upon how well patients engage in clinic appointments and their overall diabetes care. This in turn impacts upon parents; who may over- or under-compensate to address this, bu...

Both diabetes and Addisons’ are conditions which can be associated with muscle weakness and altered potassium levels. This is a case of recurrent muscle paralysis in a patient with both conditions with the underlying abnormality being the neurological condition of hypokalaemic periodic paralysis.A 23-year-old Caucasian gentleman was admitted to medical admissions with sudden onset weakness of his lower legs. On examination he had reduced power of hi...

Aims: Women with Turner’s syndrome (TS) are increasingly undertaking pregnancies, either via natural conception (mosaic TS) or assisted conception (AC). Increased TS pregnancies have led to reports suggesting high risk of pregnancy associated aortic dissection (AOD) 2%, and maternal mortality 2% due to underlying aortic valve abnormalities and aortopathies. However, the literature is limited to small case series. We report our practice providing risk-assessment and combin...

Introduction: In rodents, dietary choline deficiency (CDD) results in macrovesicular hepatic steatosis and insulin sensitisation whereas methionine and choline deficient (MCDD) diets result in inflammatory fibrotic steatohepatitis with hepatic insulin resistance. The methyl donors choline and methionine are essential components of one-carbon metabolism. Our hypothesis was that methyl donor deficiency in mice would affect the expression of key genes in pathways of hepatic lipid...

Background: Low thyroid hormone concentrations in the first few weeks of life in preterm infants may be linked with poor neurodevelopment. We conducted a multi-centred randomised controlled trial of thyroxine (T4) supplementation in babies born under 28-weeks’ gestation (TIPIT study). A post hoc subgroup analysis was undertaken to examine brain growth and development.Methods: Seventy-eight infants received T4 supplementation an...

The recent discovery of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in adult humans, which generates heat to maintain body temperature in a cold environment, offers an exciting new strategy to treat obesity and metabolic disease, but our knowledge of human BAT activation is limited. To identify novel pathways regulating human BAT, we undertook RNA sequencing of human brown and white adipocytes. The gene SLC6A4 (encoding the serotonin transporter SERT) was one of the most highly differ...

Background: Oral octreotide capsules (OOC) are a treatment option for patients with acromegaly in the United States who have previously responded to injectable somatostatin receptor ligands (iSRLs, octreotide or lanreotide). In previous phase 3 studies, the safety of OOC was shown to be consistent with iSRLs, without dose-dependent adverse reactions. In the double-blind, placebo-controlled period (DPC) of the CHIASMA OPTIMAL trial (NCT03252353), patients were randomized to twi...

Background: The number of women seeking bariatric surgery in order to improve their fertility is increasing. Current guidelines recommend that pregnancy should be delayed for at least 1 year post-surgery. However, there are limited data regarding pregnancy outcomes post-surgery, particularly for sleeve gastrectomy.Methods: We performed a single-centre, retrospective cohort study of pregnancies in women post-bariatric surgery. Surgical and maternity recor...

Background: Data on the impact of withdrawal from long-acting somatostatin receptor ligand (SRL) injections on disease activity in patients with acromegaly are limited. The CHIASMA OPTIMAL study assessed the efficacy and safety of oral octreotide capsules (OOC) in adult patients with acromegaly responding to SRL injections. The placebo arm of this study allowed for assessment of acromegaly activity in patients after withdrawal from SRL treatment.Methods:...

Background: Injectable somatostatin receptor ligands (SRLs) are the most widely used therapy to control acromegaly. Oral octreotide capsules (OOC) have been formulated as a potential therapy for this disorder and the efficacy and safety was evaluated in the CHIASMA OPTIMAL prospective phase 3 study in patients with acromegaly who were controlled on injectable SRL treatment of varying doses (Samson et al. ENDO 2020).Methods: Patients with confirm...