Endocrine Abstracts

Lipodystrophy including familial, acquired and secondary forms displays the full spectrum of the metabolic syndrome including severe insulin resistance, hyperinsulinaemia; hypertension, hypertriglyceridaemia, low HDL cholesterol, and hyperglycaemia1. This group have an absolute or partial reduction in fat mass, yet often show more extreme metabolic features than obese individuals.Partial lipodystrophy may be genetic or acquired. Genetic causes...

A 44-year-old lady with hypertension and type 2 diabetes of 10 years duration (BMI 47, HbA1c 9.1%) treated with metformin and exenatide presented with a few days history of feeling generally unwell, vomiting and confusion. Initial examination showed pulse 120 per min, BP 115/74 mmHg, normal temperature and multiple abdominal striae. Admission investigations showed Na 140, K 1.4, urea 3.9, creatinine 74, glucose 26, CRP 23 Hb 16.2, WBC 11.6. ABGS on room air showed pH 7.41, PCO...

Background: The Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP1RA) semaglutide has shown improvements in glycaemia and other metabolic parameters for patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in clinical trials. Published real-world data are sparse and there are none from the Middle East where semaglutide became available in 2020.Method and Results: We retrospectively gathered data for 289 patients (median age 50 years (IQR 42-57), 36% female, 87% Emirati and 8...

Cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) rhinorrhea is a recognised complication of pituitary surgery, and occasionally occurs following pituitary radiotherapy. Macroprolactinomas (MPRL) may result in spontaneous or dopamine-agonist-induced CSF leaks, however no detailed large comparisons have been made with non-functioning adenomas (NFA). The incidence of this phenomenon and the mechanisms underlying it are not understood.We have performed a retrospective review of s...

The Diabetes Control and Complications Study, United States, and the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study both reported increasing weight gain in all groups of patients with diabetes. The present study was designed to examine retrospectively if this was the experience in a clinic with an emphasis on weight loss as a central component of the treatment offered, facilitated by frequent clinic visits, the attendance of a dietitian at all clinics, a relatively low rate of insu...

Macroprolactin, a high molecular mass complex of prolactin and an IgG antibody is confined to the vasculature and exhibits limited bioactivity in vivo. Using a panel of sera obtained from 10 subjects whose hyperprolactinaemia was due entirely to macroprolactin this study aims to compare the level of detection of macroprolactin by 9 of the most commonly used prolactin immunoassays.The study involved 24 clinical laboratories employing the following 9 anal...

We report the case of a 28-year-old Emirati lady with type 1 diabetes (weight 51 kg, BMI 20.82 kg/m2) diagnosed at 3 years of age who presented to our centre with problems at her insulin injection sites. She had poor glycaemic control and her diabetes was complicated by retinopathy; other past medical history included vitamin D deficiency. All her seven siblings had diabetes and were on insulin; both parents had type 2 diabetes.In 2017, she wa...

Objective: Macroprolactinomas (MPRL) may result in spontaneous or dopamine-agonist-induced CSF rhinorrhoea. The incidence of, and mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are poorly understood. In this study, we aimed to determine the incidence of non-surgical (spontaneous and dopamine-agonist-induced) rhinorrhoea, and to identify biochemical, radiological and histopathological factors associated with this phenomenon.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed MPR...

Late onset Cushing’s disease, occurring years following the diagnosis of a silent corticotroph adenoma (SCA) is rare, with very few previously reported cases. We present a series of 5 subjects with SCA, aggressive tumour recurrences and late onset Cushing’s disease.The mean age of subjects at initial presentation was 41 yrs (35–52), sex 3:2 (M:F). There were no clinical features of hypercortisolism at diagnosis. Two subjects had hypocortis...

Background: Cushing’s disease (CD) may be associated with equivocal results on biochemical investigations.Aim: To evaluate the usefulness of dexamethazone suppression tests in the diagnostic work-up of CD.Patients and methods: Seventy patients with CD [median age 38 yrs(16–76), 53 females] presenting between 1976–2005 were studied. 24-hr urinary free cortisol (UFC), overnight (oDST) (1 mg at 23:00 h), low dose (LDDST...