Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: We hypothesised that children with type 1 diabetes would have more hyperglycaemia following a British as compared to a European breakfast.Methods: Children were asked to take a continental breakfast and a typical British breakfast cereal on separate days. Pre breakfast glucometer readings were documented and then regular readings until lunchtime. The meals were prescribed by a dietitian; they were approximately carbohydrate matched but of d...

A 26 year old man of Angolan descent presented to the endocrine clinic with poorly controlled hypertension (systolic blood pressure >200 mmHg). He had been treated with Amlodipine for almost six years, and more recently the addition of Irbesatan and Indapamide had not led to adequate blood pressure control. His hypertension was diagnosed at age 19 and progressive features of Cushing’s disease had remained unnoticed, with truncal striae, easy bruising, myopathy, puffin...

Aim: Type I Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder with an incidence of 24,000 children in the UK. NICE has recommended the use of the sensor augmented pump (SAP) in managing short and long term diabetes related complications. Limited literature is available in the paediatric population. SAP is designed to allow continuous glucose monitoring, with real-time adjustment of insulin; making it superior to other pump systems. 0.8% of children suffer from Type I DM in the...

A 40 year old man with CAH and significant needle phobia presented with left leg pain in January 2011. He had been discharged from follow up at another trust. Medications were hydrocortisone 10 mg BD and fludrocortisone 100 mcg OD. Admission haemoglobin was 19.9 g/dl, haematocrit 0.554. A thorough work up to investigate causes of polycythaemia revealed the only significant abnormality as a testosterone of 45.7 nmol/L (8–27), with low gonadotrophins. The blood sample for 1...

Hyponatremia complicates 1% of hospital admissions and can be associated with serious CNS effects. We report a case of an 84-year-old woman with longstanding hyponatremia resulting in several hospital admissions because of acute confusion due to severe hypoatremia. This case emphasizes the need to consider selective vasopressin V2-receptor antagonist (Tolvaptan) as a potential therapy for hyponatremia secondary to the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone (SIADH)....

We present the case of an 80-year-old man found to have a non-functioning pituitary macroadenoma causing secondary adrenal insufficiency and hypogonadism in 2006. Thyroid function and prolactin levels were normal. With hydrocortisone replacement he was doing well. There was no visual field defect and he continued with conservative management. On enquiring about testosterone treatment, it had been started in Oct 2008, but discontinued within a month as there was no change in hi...

A 31-year-old German lady attended A&E with a 1 week history of bilateral leg swelling. The leg swelling had been gradual in onset and was not associated with shortness of breath, chest pain or haemoptysis. She had no history of renal or cardiac disease. Her only past medical history was of mild indigestion. She did not have any regular medication use. On examination she was systemically well but had bilateral pitting lower limb oedema. Blood pressure was 120/80 mmHg (comp...

Recent data suggests that oestrogen(E)-responsive somatostatin neurones are involved in the generation of the ovine GnRH surge. Specifically, somatostatin neurones in the hypothalamus are activated (as assessed by nuclear fos) and mRNA levels are elevated in the early stages of the surge induction process. In addition, somatostatin fibres have been visualised in close apposition to hypothalamic GnRH neurones, which may indicate direct neural connection between GnRH and somatos...

We present a case of a 29-year-old lady who presented with subfertility. She had had a 2 years history of oligomenorrhoea with highly irregular menses. She had symptoms of depression and described tunnel vision. Clinically, she was euendocrine with no features of hormonal excess or deficiency. She was not hirsute. Visual field testing demonstrated a severe left superior temporal quadrantopia.Laboratory investigations demonstrated an oestriadol level rang...

Biopharmaceuticals are complex molecules and can show variation between production batches. Physicochemical tests and biological activity measurements contribute complementary data to the characterisation of these products.As part of a project to correlate physicochemical and bioassay data, under the Department of Trade and Industry’s Measurements for Biotechnology programme, we have developed a simple, robust cellbased bioassay protocol for interfe...