Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Wolfram syndrome (WS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder, characterised by early-onset diabetes and optic atrophy. It is caused by mutations in WFS1.Objective and hypotheses: This study aimed to comprehensively review the natural history of WS in a large cohort of patients from the EURO-WABB registry.Method: Data from EURO-WABB patients with WS was analysed in conjunction with the Leiden Open Variation Data...

Introduction: EURO-WABB is a European research project within the field of rare diabetes diseases. The general objective is to support efficient diagnosis, treatment and research for the overlapping rare genetic diseases Wolfram, Alstrom and Bardet-Biedl (WABB) syndromes.Methods: The project is supported by the EU DG-SANCO by the collaboration of 8 Associated Partners (AP) and 15 Collaborating Partners. University of Birmingham work as the Project Leader...

Positron emission tomography (PET) using the glucose analog tracer fluoro-deoxy-glucose (FDG) is today a widely available and highly useful functional imaging modality. Thus, FDG-PET has proved its clinical worth in particularly malignancy detection and treatment monitoring and is now often a first-line choice in the diagnostics of a range of diseases. However, PET is also an excellent tool for non-invasive measurement of metabolic processes, pathophysiology and pharmacokineti...

Introduction: Recent trials suggest that using ergot-derived dopamine agonists such as cabergoline in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease is associated with an increased risk of valvular heart disease. However, the dose of cabergoline used to treat hyperprolactinaemia is considerably less than that used in Parkinson’s disease.Study design: A cross-sectional study; forty four patients, who received cabergoline for at least 6 months, underwent t...

Neurodegenerative diseases are characterised by the loss of specific subsets of neurons, and whilst drug therapies exist for some of these disorders (eg Parkinson's disease) none of them are curative. This has led to the search for a cell-based therapy, the most successful being the transplantation of human fetal tissue into Parkinson's patients. However, there are ethical and logistical problems associated with this tissue collection, hence an alternative source has been soug...

Introduction: Patients with Parkinson’s disease on pharmacological treatment frequently loose weight but regain weight after subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (SNBS). This is, at least in part, due to an increase in resting energy expenditure (Perlemoine et al., Br J Nutrition 2005; 93). As SNBS electrodes are located close to the hypothalamic centre regulating food intake, we investigated whether ghrelin levels would vary with SNBS and/or L-DOPA tr...

Introduction: Osteoporosis is a prevalent skeletal disease associated with increased fracture risk, morbidity, and mortality. Several meta-analyses have investigated the association between non-genetic, non-pharmacologic factors and osteoporosis risk.Purpose: We aimed to perform an umbrella review of the literature to systematically evaluate the available evidence.Methods: Meta-analyses of observational studies evaluating the assoc...

Background: The use of high dose Ergot derived dopamine agonists in patients with Parkinson’s disease has been associated with an increased risk of cardiac valvular fibrosis. The UK Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) currently advises baseline Echocardiogram within 3–6 months and follow up Echocardiogram at 6–12 monthly intervals in all patients taking ergot derived dopamine agonists. However, the risk of cardiac valvulopathy with lower doses...

Dopamine agonists (DA) are very effective and the first-line treatment for hyperprolactinemia. In prolactinoma, DA therapy is the treatment of choice. DA decrease prolactin levels, restore gonadal function, improve visual field defects and reduce tumor size. In some patients drug therapy can lead to a complete remission, including eradication of the tumor, and thereby allow discontinuation of treatment. The majority of the patients, however, have to be treated for many years. ...

Background: Long-term treatment with dopamine agonists (DAs) is considered to be the first-choice therapy for prolactinomas. According to current guidelines DAs can be safely withdrawn in patients with negative pituitary MRI and stable normalization of prolactin levels for at least 3 years. On the other hand, recent studies have shown an increased risk for valvular heart disease in patients with Parkinson’s disease treated with high doses of cabergoline. The aim of this s...