Endocrine Abstracts

A 74 year old female presented with symptoms of recent fatigue, nausea and weight loss. No other symptoms were present. She had previously had a hysterectomy with conservation of both ovaries 30 years previously for fibroids. The rest of her history was unremarkable. No undue clinical findings were apparent on examination. Initial bloods revealed normal haematology, biochemistry and liver profiles. Corrected calcium was elevated at 3.07 millimoles per litre(2.1-2.6). Subsequen...

Case 1: A 73-year-old woman underwent two separate major abdominal surgeries, one month apart, for the management of ovarian endometrioid adenocarcinoma. She had hypotensive crises about 30 minutes into each of the procedures, requiring metaraminol and noradrenaline infusions. Cortisol levels post-surgeries were 99 nmol/l and 23 nmol/l, respectively. Further questioning revealed exogenous steroid use, including high dose inhaled steroids (Fostair-800mcg/daily) and IM steroid i...

Case report: An 11-year-old boy presented with an increasingly waddling gait and backache. He had been born small for gestational age (BW 1.8kg; -4.7 SDS) and had a history of dyspraxia and autism. He reported reasonable dairy intake and had no history of previous fractures or clinical signs of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Spinal imaging revealed multiple vertebral fractures. Malignancy and systemic inflammatory causes were excluded. An OI gene panel revealed a single pathoge...

Objective: To study the effect of alemtuzumab used in Reduced Intensity Conditioning prior to hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) on thyroid function.Methods: This retrospective case review of 13 patients (9 male, 4 female) who underwent HSCT and had alemtuzumab based conditioning regimen. 5 patients had Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, 3 severe a plastic anaemia, 1 acute myeloid leukaemia, 1 congenital bone marrow failure, 1 chronic granulomatous di...

A 21 years old male, diagnosed with ALL in 2003 (aged 9), completed treatment in June 2009 (aged 15). Chemotherapeutic agents included doxorubicin, daunorubicin, cytarabine, mercaptopurine, methotrexate, asparaginase, vincristine, dexamethasone (7 mg for 3.5 years). He didn’t receive any cranial irradiation. He underwent endocrine assessment aged 15 because of delayed puberty and had testosterone replacement for 4 years (September 2012 till January 2016). He also had hist...

Case history: A 22-year-old woman presented with a week’s history of abdominal pain and constipation. further history revealed episodes of tachycardia during childhood but no cause at that time was identified. On examination she had a sinus tachycardia, her abdomen was mildly tender and the rest of her clinical examination was completely unremarkable, including blood pressure, and there were no clinical findings consistent with Addisonian crisis.Inv...

Introduction: Cure rate of childhood cancer is a medical success story. However >50% of patients have long term consequences of their cancer treatment. We reviewed data on very long term childhood leukaemia follow-up patients at our institution.Methods: We reviewed electronic patient records for 39 patients (23 female, 16 male; 38-ALL, 1-AML). Multiple chemotherapy regimes were used-low use of anthracyclines/alkylating agents apart from BMT group who...

Background: Thyroid function is affected by critical illness – termed as non-thyroidal illness – and usually presents with low serum TSH and FT3 levels but normal FT3 concentrations. Critically ill patients may also have impaired immune function that could contribute to increased susceptibility to acquired infections and mortality. Thyroid hormones influence neutrophil levels and function but the effect of non-thyroidal illness on neutrophil fun...

Breast cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death in Australian women. Up to 70% of post-menopausal tumours are estrogen-receptor positive (ER+), dependent on estrogen for continued growth and proliferative advantage. Adjuvant anti-estrogen therapies are considered the cornerstone approach to the treatment of such tumours, and research is ongoing to maximize its effectiveness. The major source of estrogens for ER+ breast cancers is local conversion of androgen pr...

Objectives: A retrospective review of adult patients with Turner syndrome (TS) attending a joint Turner syndrome clinic.Methods: Sixty-two adult patients with TS clinic were identified. Data was collected from case notes and electronic records.Results: Diagnosis was prenatal/at birth in 20%, 1–10 years in 29%, 11–20 years in 47% and after 21 years in one patient. Common presenting complaints were short stature (51%) and p...