Endocrine Abstracts

A 31-year-old Taiwanese lady presented with palpitations, anxiety, orthopnoea, peripheral oedema, diarrhoea and a swelling in her neck. She was taking no regular medication. Her paternal uncle had been treated for thyrotoxicosis. She smoked 20 cigarettes per day. Clinical examination revealed tachycardia (pulse rate between 115 and 150 beats/min), tachypnoea (respiratory rate 30 breaths/min), hypertension (BP 161/125 mmHg) and congestive cardiac failure. The thyroid gland was ...

Introduction: Radioactive Iodine (RAI) is a well-established and effective treatment for hyperthyroidism. Lithium (Li) blocks the release of organic iodide and thyroid hormone from the thyroid gland without effecting thyroidal RAI uptake. Through decreasing the loss of RAI from the thyroid it has also been shown to reduce urinary RAI excretion. Its use as an adjunct to RAI in the therapy of hyperthyroidism has been postulated, but information on the subject is limited.<p c...

Background: Controversy exists over the prevalence of colonic neoplasia in individuals with acromegaly. Some previous studies have demonstrated an increased prevalence of colorectal neoplasia compared to controls, however others have shown no such association. Furthermore, colonoscopy in acromegalic individuals has an increased rate of complications and even death....

Background: Yttrium-90 (90Y) pituitary implants have previously been used to treat patients with growth hormone (GH) secreting pituitary adenoma. This study reports the long-term effect of 90Y implants on growth hormone levels and pituitary function in a group of acromegalic patients....

BackgroundPrevious studies suggest that patients with acromegaly should have regular colonoscopic examinations due to their increased risk of colorectal neoplasia. However, acromegalic patients have significantly enlarged colon and increased rate of complications due to colonoscopy have been reported.AimTo assess the difficulty of performing colonoscopy in acromegalic patients by comparing large bowel length,...

Introduction: Radioactive Iodine (RAI) is a well-established and effective treatment for hyperthyroidism. Lithium (Li) blocks the release of organic iodide and thyroid hormone from the thyroid gland without effecting thyroidal RAI uptake. Through decreasing the loss of RAI from the thyroid it has also been shown to reduce urinary RAI excretion. Its use as an adjunct to RAI in the therapy of hyperthyroidism has been postulated, but information on the subject is limited....

Adult-onset Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disease characterised by the abnormal proliferation of Langerhans cells, and has a distinct phenotype to that of childhood-onset LCH. Diabetes Insipidus (DI) is a well-recognised manifestation of LCH, caused by infiltration of the hypothalamo-pituitary axis (HPA). Anterior pituitary dysfunction is an uncommon complication of LCH, which has been shown to be associated with DI. However, this association has previously onl...

BACKGROUND: Patients with dyspepsia are treated with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) which reduce acid secretion and therefore give rise to a secondary hypergastrinaemia. Gastrinomas are a rare cause of dyspepsia diagnosed on the basis of a raised fasting gastrin measurement. Therefore, when screening patients with dyspepsia for a gastrinoma, PPIs must be withdrawn for 2 weeks, prior to the measurement of fasting gastrin levels to ensure that fasting gastrin levels are back to b...

Background:Galectin-3, a beta-galactosidase binding lectin, has been reported to be preferentially expressed in thyroid malignancies by many authors. Moreover, it has been claimed that galectin-3 is a useful adjunct to fine-needle aspiration (FNA) in the diagnosis of follicular thyroid lesions, a notorious pitfall of this test. Although galectin-3 does seem to be expressed more often in malignant thyroid lesions, especially papillary carcinomas, it is fr...

Lithium blocks the release of organic iodine and thyroid hormone from the thyroid gland without affecting thyroidal radioactive iodine (RAI) uptake. From August 2001, we have been using lithium carbonate 800mg nocte as an adjunct to RAI treatment for thyrotoxicosis. Antithyroid medication is stopped and lithium started 3 days before RAI. Lithium is continued for 10 days in total with levels checked at 3 and 10 days. Thyroid function tests (TFTs) are measured 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 ...