Endocrine Abstracts

Hyponatraemia is the most common electrolyte abnormality, encountered in up to 30% of inpatients. Inappropriate management can have serious implications for patients; including demyelinating disease, coma, and death.Methods: Patients (n=100) admitted to the medical admission unit of a district general hospital with a serum sodium (Na) <130 were selected for the study. All details including patient demographics, blood biochemistry, date of admi...

A 58-year-old previously fit and well man presented with sudden onset severe epigastric pain associated with frequent episodes of vomiting. The pain was constant and relieved only with morphine. He was febrile otherwise systemic examination was normal. Serum sodium 132 mmol/l and serum potassium 4.4 mmol/l. The rest of blood testes including; full blood count, liver functions, glucose, amylase, corrected calcium, D-dimer, troponin, urea and creatinine were all normal. ECG, che...

Background: A range of laboratory tests are available for investigation of phaeochromocytoma/paraganglioma (PPGL) and there is scope for significant variation in practice between centres. Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guidelines make recommendations concerning the laboratory investigation of PPGL. We performed a national audit using these recommendations as audit standards.Methodology: A questionnaire was distributed to all clinical biochemistry de...

Background: Hyponatraemia is the most common electrolyte abnormality, encountered in up to 30% of inpatients. Inappropriate management can have serious implications for patients; including demyelinating disease, coma, and death.Methods: Patients (n=122) admitted to the medical admission unit of a district general hospital with a serum sodium (Na) <130 were selected for the study. All details including patient demographics, blood bio...

Background: Among infants presenting with prolonged hyperbilirubinaemia there is anecdotal evidence that some babies who were Newborn Screening-negative for congenital hypothyroidism (CHT) have CHT diagnosed at the time of presentation with jaundice.Aims: To determine the prevalence of CHT in babies presenting with prolonged jaundice and to assess the predictive value of lowering the TSH cut-off for a screen-positive result on the ability to identify bab...

Background: The UK Newborn Screening Programme Centre Clinical Referral Standards and Guidelines for CHT (2013) define TSH cut-offs for screen positive (>20 mU/l) and borderline (>10 and <20 mU/l) results. In Manchester levels >8 and <20 mU/l are classified as borderline. This audit aims to assess whether adopting the national cut-off would result in babies with significant and permanent hypothyroid disease being missed.Patient popula...

Background: The diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is based on a combination of clinical suspicion supported by growth hormone stimulation testing. IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 are used as supportive markers. Reports over the last decade have examined the performance of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 in the diagnosis of GHD. It is important that each unit evaluates the utility of these markers in the assay used by their laboratory based on relevant normative data.Aim:...

Background: IRS consists of ≥3 of the following components: obesity (BMI >98th centile), abnormal insulin glucose homeostasis, hypertension, dyslipidaemia. Elevated serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is a marker of NAFLD.Objective: To define the prevalence of IRS and NAFLD in obese children referred to our centre.Methods: subjects: mean BMI-SDS +6 (+0.6 to +14), median age 13.4 years (3–19), female 66%, British Asi...

Background: The 3 day human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) test is commonly performed to investigate male undervirilisation. However, the utility of routine HCG testing for male undervirilisation in early childhood and correlation with pubertal progress is unclear.Aims: To review performance of the 3 day HCG test for diagnosis and outcomes.Methods: Standard 3 day HCG test data were analysed in 130 boys of age <3 years with under...

Background: Harrington et al.1 suggest that basal LH of ≥0.3 IU/l as measured by ICMA (Immulite 2500) has 100% specificity and 90.5% sensitivity in identifying progressive central precocious puberty (CPP).Aims: To examine the utility of basal LH measured with the DELFIA assay for identifying CPP in girls.Methods: All girls under age 9 years (median 7.3 years) investigated for precocious puberty with a GnRH...