Endocrine Abstracts

The most common form of endocrine cancer is differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). Outcomes of DTC largely depend on radioiodine treatment, which is mediated the sodium-iodide symporter (NIS). However, many tumours exhibit NIS dysregulation, resulting in a poorer prognosis. Since breast cancer can also overexpress NIS, albeit of limited function, radioiodine treatment may be a promising treatment option. Our previous data show that overexpression of the pituitary tumor-transform...

Acute hyponatraemia is a medical emergency with high mortality. Recent expert guidelines advocate treatment with intravenous boluses of 3% saline with the aim to reduce cerebral oedema more rapidly than traditional slow intravenous infusion, but there is a poor evidence base for this policy change. We retrospectively audited treatment of symptomatic hyponatraemia due to SIAD (n=57, age 22–76 year), comparing low dose (20 ml/h) and bolus infusion of 3% saline. Bol...

Although the sodium iodide symporter (NIS) is expressed in 70–80% of breast cancers, only 20–30% is located at the plasma membrane (PM) and therefore functional. Previous work in thyroid cells leads demonstrated that PBF redistributes NIS from the PM into intracellular vesicles, potently reducing radioiodide uptake. We therefore examined whether increased membranous NIS could facilitate radioiodide therapy for breast cancer. Immunofluorescent microscopy revealed co-l...

Pituitary tumor-transforming gene binding factor (PBF) is a ubiquitous glycoprotein which is over-expressed in thyroid, breast and other endocrine cancers, and modulates cellular invasion, radioiodine uptake and thyroid hormone efflux. Papillary thyroid cancer patients with high PBF expression show decreased disease-specific survival compared to those with lower expression. PBF expression has recently been correlated with breast cancer metastasis and colon cancer extra-mural v...

TSH-secreting pituitary adenomas (TSHomas) are rare. Previously, the reported prevalence was one case per million populations although this is probably an underestimate. A recently published study reported a prevalence of TSHomas in Sweden of 2.8/million inhabitants.Methods/design: Observational study conducted in four tertiary referral centres in Ireland. We retrospectively collected data on the prevalence, demographics, hormonal profile, tumour charact...

Pituitary patients with different aetiologies of hypopituitarism exhibit differing phenotypes despite optimal replacement therapy. We hypothesised that differential regulation of the isoenzyme 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1 (11β-HSD1), which mediates the autocrine conversion of cortisone to cortisol in adipose tissues and liver may play a role.We prospectively studied 11β-HSD1 activity through analysis of 24 h urine cortisol/cortisone ...

Acromegaly is a rare condition resulting from excess secretion of GH and IGF1. Acromegaly is frequently associated with subfertility. As such there is little data on the course of the disease during pregnancy, and of the effects of the disease and its treatments on the foetus.Objective: We describe known pregnancies in women with acromegaly within the Republic of Ireland over a 15-year period.Methods: We collected clinical, biochem...

The pathogenesis of pituitary adenomas is poorly understood. One of the first genetic abnormalities identified in association with pituitary adenomas occurs in patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia type-1 (MEN-1), due to mutations in the MEN1 gene, encoding menin. A tumor suppressor, menin associates with histone methyltransferase complexes to change the expression of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor genes, which may serve as an underlying epigenetic mecha...

Neck ultrasound (US) can facilitate minimally invasive parathyroidectomy by providing fine anatomical detail of enlarged parathyroid adenomas in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT). The role of neck MRI in US negative/equivocal cases remains unclear. We aimed to evaluate the performance of neck MRI in parathyroid tumour localisation in the setting of negative or equivocal neck US.We performed a retrospective review of a consecutive series of...

Published data has demonstrated that low 0900 h plasma total cortisol (PTC) immediately following traumatic brain injury (TBI) predicts mortality. However, potential discrepancies exist between PTC and plasma free cortisol (PFC). We hypothesised that low PTC would correlate closely with PFC and predict mortality and long-term hypopituitarism.One hundred patients (84 men, median age 33, range 18–75) with TBI (mean GCS±S.D.=8.59&#1...