Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Primary aldosteronism (PA) is the most common endocrine cause of hypertension affecting up-to 10% of hypertensives. Saline suppression, a confirmatory test for PA helps avoiding patients undergoing invasive lateralisation procedures due to a false positive aldosterone-to-renin ratio (ARR). The proposed cut-off to exclude PA is post-saline aldosterone suppression to <140 pmol/l. We reviewed our biochemical work-up in order to optimise laboratory assessment.</p...

Objectives: Along with better recognition of the role of primary aldosteronism (PA) in increasing cardiovascular risk and the potential of targeted therapy for PA, the long-term mortality according to different treatments are poorly understood.Methods: We investigated PA patients using the validated algorithms between 1999 and 2011. Their data were extracted from the whole claims of the Taiwan National Health Insurance. We used Cox regression with time-v...

Background: Hyperthyroidism affects 1.3% of the population. The antithyroid drugs (ATD), carbimazole and propylthiouracil, can induce agranulocytosis, a rare but potentially life threatening side-effect with a prevalence of 0.10–0.15%. We assessed the adequacy of our patient’s knowledge of this side-effect.Methods: Patients on ATD completed a questionnaire before attending clinic. The questionnaire consisted of nine questions detailing informat...

Premature menopause (PM) occurs spontaneously as premature ovarian failure (POF), or is medically induced (MIPM) by oophorectomy, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. PM is associated with increased health risks, including osteoporosis. This study explored understanding of menopausal therapies, medication use and health-related behaviour in women with and without PM.Methods: Cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study involving 23 premenopausal, 25 POF and 29 MI...

A 62-year-old lady was referred to our Department with a nine-month history of facial swelling, easy bruising, and centripetal weight gain. She had a longstanding history of depression, hypertension, and osteoarthritis. She was taking citalopram, buspirone, atenolol and bendrofluazide. A few months earlier she had received bilateral intra-articular knee injections at her local hospital for arthritic pain. On examination she had thin skin with multiple bruises, facial puffiness...

The oestrogen-receptor related orphan nuclear receptors (ERR) share significant sequence homology with oestrogen receptors (ER) alpha and beta but are unable to bind oestradiol. They are reported to constitutively regulate gene expression by binding to the ER response elements (ERE) or SF1 binding sites (SFRE) in gene promoters. However recent evidence from transgenic animal models point towards a role of these orphan nuclear receptors as regulators of energy-producing metabol...

BackgroundAppetite is complex, however to address the obesity epidemic, therapeutic agents would have to significantly influence appetite. Currently the most effective treatment for obesity is bariatric surgery because it reduces hunger and increases satiety. The satiety gut hormones such as peptide YY (PYY) and glucagon like peptide 1 (GLP-1) reduce appetite and food intake. Compared to lean and obese subjects, exaggerated postprandial responses of PYY ...

Background: PYY is a gut hormone that physiologically inhibits appetite. Currently only radioimmunoassay (RIA) techniques are available for its estimation. The aim of the study was to evaluate our in-house assay for precision, detection limit, interference of haemolysis, suitability of serum versus plasma and biological variation within one subject.Method: All samples were obtained from one subject on two occasions following an over night fast and the co...

A man presented at age 32 with clinical features of Cushing’s syndrome and biochemical investigations were consistent with ectopic ACTH. The only potential source on imaging was a 5 mm right lung nodule on chest CT but which was too small to biopsy. Medical therapy was not successful at controlling his Cushing’s features so he was referred for thoracotomy. Following lobectomy, the lung nodule was found to be a carcinoid tumour. Post operatively, the patient’s sy...

Background: Childhood growth is an indicator of health/well-being. Growth monitoring identifies treatable conditions in apparently healthy children and prevents inappropriate referrals. Systematic growth monitoring is not currently a UK priority and growth disorders are frequently diagnosed late.Objective: Develop and test the accuracy of GrowthMonitor, an app which enables families to measure a child’s height at home as a cost-effective alternative...