Endocrine Abstracts

Hyponatraemia is a well-recognised neurosurgical complication, but the incidence and complications are unknown.Objective : We aimed to define the incidence, pathophysiology and effects of significant hyponatraemia following neurosurgical admissions.Methods: All neurosurgical patients with significant hyponatraemia (plasma sodium <130 millimol per litre) between January 2002 and September 2003 were identified from computerised la...

Hyponatraemia occurs in 25-40% of patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) but the pathogenesis is unclear.Objective: We aimed to establish the incidence, pathophysiology and consequences of hyponatraemia following SAH.Methods: A retrospective case note analysis of all patients with radiologically-proven SAH admitted to Beaumont Hospital between Jan 2002 and September 2003. Of 580 patients coded as SAH on HIPE records, 316 were...

Published data has demonstrated that low 0900 h plasma total cortisol (PTC) immediately following traumatic brain injury (TBI) predicts mortality. However, potential discrepancies exist between PTC and plasma free cortisol (PFC). We hypothesised that low PTC would correlate closely with PFC and predict mortality and long-term hypopituitarism.One hundred patients (84 men, median age 33, range 18–75) with TBI (mean GCS±S.D.=8.59&#1...

Context: The economic and logistic burden of screening for hypopituitarism following moderate/severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is considerable. Published guidelines suggest prioritisation for screening of patients with symptoms of pituitary dysfunction.Objective: To evaluate the implementation of targeted symptom-based screening for hypopituitarism after moderate/severe TBI, compared with routine consecutive screening.Design: Gr...

Hypothalamic-pituitary (HP) dysfunction is common in children treated with cranial radiotherapy (RT) for brain tumours but there is little known about the risk of HP dysfunction in adults treated with RT for primary non-pituitary brain tumours.We aimed to investigate the frequency of HP dysfunction in adults after RT for primary brain tumours which are distant from the HP region.We studied 56 adult patients who received external be...