Endocrine Abstracts

Life expectancy has improved for all children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis (CACF); children now survive into adult life. Cystic fibrosis related diabetes (CFRD) is increasing1–3. The combination of CF and diabetes has a negative impact on survival. From 2002 to date, CFRD has been related to decreased survival3 and survival gender differences are also described4. Patients with CFRD have a sixfold increase in morbidity and mortality...

The recent and rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity in most developed and developing countries has correctly focused attention on environmental determinants of that secular trend. However, a fuller understanding of the factors determining any individual person’s adiposity requires appropriate consideration of inheritance. Studies of twins, adoptees and adopted twins provide incontrovertible evidence that heritable factors play a major, perhaps even the major factor...

‘This house believes that androgen replacement therapy, to get things going, should be offered to every hypogonadal woman’.In opposing this motion, I shall review the advantages and disadvantages of androgen replacement therapy and draw attention to the folly of offering treatment to every hypogonadal women....

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the commonest cause of anovulatory infertility, menstrual disturbances and hirsutism. In its classic form the presentation is of amenorrhoea or oligomenorrhoea associated with clinical and/or biochemical evidence of hyperandrogenism. However, it is clear that the spectrum of presenting symptoms of women with polycystic ovaries is wide, including anovulation without hirsutism (androgen levels are usually raised) and hirsutism with regular cyc...

Interpretation of biochemical results may be heavily influenced by fasting status (e.g. triglycerides), sample obtained under basal conditions or pharmacologically stimulated (e.g. growth hormone), time of day (e.g. testosterone level in pubertal boy), age and pubertal status (e.g. IGF-1 level), stage of menstrual cycle (e.g. progesterone level), menopausal status (e.g. gonadotrophin levels), pregnancy (e.g. thyroid function tests), stress associated with sample collection (e....

Phaeochromocytoma and functional paraganglioma are rare in young people. Presentation, diagnosis and management follow principles established in adult endocrinology: clinical suspicion, appropriate investigation, adrenergic blockade and surgical excision where possible. Familial phaeochromocytoma syndromes are over-represented in patients presenting with the problem at a young age. This is an important dimension to the multidisciplinary approach to management, a multi-discipli...

Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia (MEN) type 1 and type 2 are autosomal dominant familial cancer syndromes characterised by the development of multiple endocrine tumours that can present at different sites, at different times. Management can be complex and requires a coordinated, multi-disciplinary approach that covers presentation, diagnosis, treatment and long term review. This may not match up with some established models of service delivery and challenges us to develop clinical...

‘The essence of scientific responsibility is the inner drive, the inner necessity to get to the bottom of things; to be discontented until one has done so; to express one’s reservations fully and honestly; and to be prepared to admit error.’ (A. Weinberg 1978 ‘The Obligations of Citizenship in the Republic of Science’ Minerva 16:1–3). Fraud and plagiarism never knowingly come into the equation. Any form of public communication by you...

The brain plays a crucial role in maintaining the body’s energy needs, a process involving the activity of a group of hypothalamic neurons that express the neuropeptidergic marker pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC). POMC neuronal dysfunction can cause obesity and its associated metabolic sequelae. However, this population of neurons is highly diverse at a molecular and functional level, and whether or not such heterogeneity is implicated in disease establishment or progression h...

Eneboparatide (AZP-3601) is a novel, synthetic, 36-amino-acid peptide agonist of the parathyroid hormone type 1 receptor (PTHR1), with potent selectivity for the R0 conformation. This results in prolonged calcemic responses, while having a short circulating half-life. Eneboparatide is being developed for the treatment of chronic hypoparathyroidism (cHP). Studies in hypoparathyroid animal models and, most recently, in hypoparathyroid patients, have demonstrated that eneboparati...