Endocrine Abstracts

Retinopathy is one of the more serious complications of type 1 diabetes. There is emerging knowledge re the development of retinopathy in childhod diabetes. We studied the clinical profiles of children with retinopathy in an industrial town in Northern England. The current clinic size is 160. 42 patients were identied from clinic records as having retinopathy. Formal screening is offered to all patients from age 12. The age range was 11–20 years; median age 16. 55% were f...

A 60 years old man was referred to the ENT department with a three week history of swelling in the left parotid gland region. Examination revealed a firm mass involving the left parotid gland. Fine needle aspiration cytology of the mass raised the suspicion of a malignancy. MRI scan of head and neck was consistent with metastatic involvement of the ipsilateral lymph glands. He underwent left radical neck dissection and left parotidectomy. Histology confirmed adenocarcinoma of ...

The objective of this study is to investigate the use of qRT-PCR as an early-stage bioassay to quantify biological activity. The action of VEGF165 on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) was selected as a model since we have previously studied dose-dependence and time courses for several late-stage responses for this system (production of IL-6, IL-8 and tissue factor, cellular proliferation and survival). Assay of VEGF activity and inhibitors underpins a ...

IntroductionMetformin is being increasingly used in the treatment of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome where it improves the metabolic and reproductive parameters through the improvement of insulin sensitivity. Observations noted that it also tended to prevent weight gain or even facilitate weight loss. Trials carried out have positively enforced this in obese patients as well as those with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.We were interested to see if a similar favourable effect coul...

Pituitary hormones are released into the bloodstream in a pulsatile fashion in response to stimuli from their hypothalamic regulators. For efficient generation of hormone pulses, both the hypothalamic mechanisms and the pituitary target cells must exhibit a high degree of coordinated secretory activity. This is particularly important for the growth hormone (GH) axis since the target tissue responses are critically dependent on the temporal pattern of GH exposure, as well as th...

Many laboratories offer a simple ratio of total testosterone (T):SHBG as an index (FAI) of free androgens. Methods for measuring free T (fT) are time consuming (equilibrium dialysis, ED) or reveal concentrations at odds with accepted values (RIA). The validity of FAI has been questioned and an alternative assessment by computation of fT recommended (1). We use a simpler calculation (2) producing results comparable to established literature. We have compared results obtained by...

Case history: A 50 year old female presented with diarrhoea, facial rash and hyponatraemia. In addition, she described a 3 week history of headaches, malaise, intermittent joint pain and swelling. On examination, the patient was noted to have a malar rash and over the subsequent 2–3 days began to develop necrotic patches on both ears. She had no evidence of cutaneous pigmentation. She took no regular medication, other than dabigatran. Past medical history of note included...

We present this 62-year-old man with a background of Marfan’s Syndrome, aortic valve replacement, atrial fibrillation and asthma who presented with increasingly severe episodic hypoglycaemia over a period of 22 years. Of note he was not diabetic and was not on any hypoglycaemia-inducing medications. Extensive investigations included the following: 72 hr fast, 5 hr OGTT, continuous glucose monitoring, basic biochemistry, hormone profiles (GH, LH...

We present this 62-year-old man with a background of Marfan’s Syndrome, aortic valve replacement, atrial fibrillation and asthma who presented with increasingly severe episodic hypoglycaemia over a period of 22 years. Of note he was not diabetic and was not on any hypoglycaemia-inducing medications. Extensive investigations included the following: 72 hr fast, 5 hr OGTT, continuous glucose monitoring, basic biochemistry, hormone profiles (GH, LH...

TSH receptor antibodies (TRAb) are autoantibodies directed against the TSH receptor, predominantly located on the thyroid epithelial cell surface. Two types of TSH receptor antibody have been found to exist in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease: thyroid stimulating antibodies (TSAb) and TSH-stimulation blocking antibodies (TSBAb). It has generally been felt that patients with positive TSAbs develop Graves’ hyperthyroidism and those with TSBAb antibodies develop hypo...