Endocrine Abstracts

Hypopituitary patients are at increased vascular risk. This may be partly attributable to changes in insulin action. It has been suggested that the addition of dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS), which is low in patients with secondary hypoadrenalism, to routine replacement may have beneficial effects on glucose metabolism. Previously, patient populations and techniques used to assess insulin action varied and overall results have been conflicting.W...

Leptin is an adipocytokine with a role in appetite, energy expenditure and reproductive regulation. In normal, non-obese individuals, leptin levels are higher in females, independent of differences in body fat between the genders. High levels of leptin that were disproportionate to body mass index (BMI) have been reported in craniopharyngioma patients, thus we hypothesised that surgical resection and hypothalamic damage conferred leptin resistance on craniopharyngioma patients...

Acromegalic congestive cardiac failure (CCF) is a serious and late complication of untreated acromegaly with associated high morbidity and mortality.1 Spontaneous recovery of end stage acromegalic CCF following autoinfarction of a somatotroph adenoma has not been previously reported.We report the case of a 61-year-old woman who presented with features of severe biventricular CCF and an acromegalic phenotype. Echocardiography revealed poor LV f...

Introduction: The management of diabetic gastroparesis resistant to medical therapy is very difficult – the most severely affected patients often spend many days as hospital inpatients with intractable nausea and vomiting and consequent dehydration, leading to a marked reduction in quality of life. Recently, gastric pacing (also known as gastric electrical stimulation (GES)) has been tried in these patients as a means of correcting the physiological deficit. It has shown ...

3-iodothyronamine (T1AM) is a novel, endogenous rapid acting biogenic amine, which is a potent agonist of the G-protein coupled trace amine-associated receptor 1, TAAR1. It has been suggested that endogenous T1AM could be generated by enzymatic deiodonation and decarboxylation of T4. The presence of T1AM in rat brain and the distribution of the TAAR1 receptor in the hypothalamus suggest that T1AM may affect food intake and regulate e...

Introduction: Patients who are severely affected with diabetic gastroparesis tend to spend many days as hospital inpatients with intractable nausea and vomiting and consequent dehydration. In patients who do not respond to promotility agents, gastric electrical stimulation (GES) is an option. This is a relatively new therapeutic modality which has shown promise in international trials. It has seen use in a very limited number of patients in Ireland. Here we outline our experie...

Primary resistance to Cabergoline occurs in a minority of patients with lactotroph adenomas but the development of late resistance following initial response is an extremely rare phenomenon which has only been reported in very few cases.: We report the case of a 57 year old lady who was presented in 1997 with headaches and visual failure and was found to have a large pituitary mass with compression of the optic chiasm and invasion into the cavernous sinuses bilaterally. Serum ...

Kisspeptin-54 is a neuropeptide encoded by the Kiss-1 gene with an important role in the regulation of reproduction and puberty. Acute peripheral or intra-hypothalamic administration of kisspeptin-54 potently stimulates the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis via hypothalamic gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons. However, the effects of chronic continuous kisspeptin administration are poorly characterised. Our studies investigated the effects of chronic, continu...

The kisspeptins are KiSS-1 gene-derived peptides which signal through the G protein coupled receptor 54 (GPR54), and have recently been shown to be critical regulators of reproduction. Acute intracerebroventricular (ICV) or peripheral administration of kisspeptin to rodents and primates, and peripheral administration to humans, stimulates the hypothalamic-pituitary gonadal (HPG) axis. This effect is thought to be mediated via the hypothalamic gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (G...

Acromegaly is a rare disease characterised by excessive Growth hormone (GH) production from a pituitary adenoma. Subfertility is common in acromegaly and has various aetiologies, therefore pregnancy in acromegaly is rare. We present a case series of 19 pregnancies in 13 women with acromegaly from the newly formed Irish National Pituitary Registry. Twelve women had pituitary macroadenomas, one woman had a microadenoma. The age of the women ranged from 28 to 40 years with a medi...