Endocrine Abstracts

A 64-year-old lady presented feeling unwell with nausea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness. She was taking sulpiride for schizophrenia and had an 8-year history of hyponatraemia. The hyponatraemia, was associated with mild hyperprolactinaemia, prompting investigation for hypopituitarism twice previously by endocrinologists in a different hospital. Secondary adrenal insufficiency had been excluded on the basis of: cortisol 576 nmol/l at 30 min after 250 mcg synacthen and cortis...

Section 1: Case history: A 66-year-old man, with a history of hypertension controlled on 3 anti-hypertensives and diet-controlled Type 2 Diabetes, presented to a community-based musculoskeletal clinic to have an intra-articular Triamcinolone injection for a frozen shoulder. 30 min after the injection, he developed dyspnoea, widespread urticaria and facial angioedema. He was initially treated for suspected anaphylaxis with adrenaline, antihistamine and Hydrocortisone at the GP ...

Introduction: Food reward stimuli elevate dopamine levels in brain reward circuits. Decreased dopaminergic signalling may be involved in pathophysiological processes leading to obesity and D2 receptor antagonists (antipsychotics) are associated with a higher risk of obesity. One study has demonstrated an association between the use of a dopamine D2 agonist (bromocriptine) and weight-loss in patients with prolactinoma. We have investigated the effect of cabergoline on body weig...

Introduction: Hyperprolactinaemia associated with antipsychotic drug use is a commonly encountered clinical problem, yet no decision-making tools exist to guide whether to scan the pituitary gland.Methods: A 10-year data series was reviewed of 246 patients who were evaluated for prolactin excess with a cannulated prolactin study. All patients had a prolactin drawn immediately following the insertion of a forearm cannula (P1) and a second sampl...

Background: Thyrotropin-secreting pituitary adenomas (TSH-omas) account for 1% of pituitary tumours. In addition to TSH, these tumours frequently secrete glycoprotein α-subunit (αSU) and up to 50% are immunoreactive for growth hormone (GH), although GH suppression following oral glucose tolerance testing (OGTT) has not been routinely performed in all patients to identify subclinical GH hypersecretion or abnormal GH suppression.Objectives: To ex...

Background: Prolactin levels are affected by stress, and in patients with moderate hyperprolactinaemia, a repeat test and/or a resting prolactin has been recommended, but there are very few data addressing the utility of these additional measurements.Aim: To study the value of: A) Repeat measurement and B) Resting measurement of serum prolactin in mild to moderate prolactin excess (510–7500 IU/L).Methods and subjects: Case not...