Endocrine Abstracts

I would like to present a case of malignant paraganglionoma which first presented as a mass in right clavicle in a 32-year-old female at Cork University Hospital. Her other medical background included Type 2 diabetes controlled on oral hypoglycemic agents and hypertension. On further imaging, she was found to have another mass in peri aortic region and biopsy confirmed the diagnosis and further verified by MIBG scan in March, 2005. Molecular analysis confirmed deletion of exon...

Vitamin D (VD) deficiency (25 OHD < 50 nmol/l) is common is chronic liver disease at 64%–92% regardless of aetiology. The only guidelines for routine VD supplementation are for cholestatic (C) liver disease; a population considered being at high risk of low bone mineral density (BMD). BMD decreases further following orthotopic liver transplant (OLT). To assess VD intake in an at risk population, retrospective analysis of intake was performed in OLT patients with C liv...

Background: Women with PCOS experience higher rates of depression and anxiety. There is a paucity of research relating to perinatal mental health in women with PCOS, as well as a lack of evidence-based guidelines for assessment and management of mental disorders specific to pregnant women with PCOS. Limited available evidence suggests PCOS is associated with a higher prevalence of perinatal mental health disorders. However, perinatal guidelines currently do no...

Introduction: A two-step approach is usually used to diagnose GDM. At 24–28 weeks of pregnancy, a 50 g 1-hour glucose or O’Sullivan test is performed. If it is positive (≥140 mg/dl), it is followed by a 100 g-3 hours-Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) which is considered positive if at least two or more values are ≥ of reference values (105-190-165-145 mg/dl). Despite it is not include in any clinical practice guideline, sometimes the 100 g OGTT is obviat...

I am committed to undergraduate and postgraduate education. As Endocrinology course lead, Imperial College Medical School, I have designed a course to consolidate key principles of Endocrine pathology and physiology. Clinical reasoning is a cornerstone of clinical practice and a key learning requirement in undergraduate medical education. I have focused on developing clinical reasoning skills throughout the Endocrinology course using interactive clinical cases. The students ha...

As a clinical trainee, you may be presented with teaching opportunities, but these are often opportunistic. Clinical training rarely provides sufficient flexibility to commit to developing substantial teaching roles. As you progress towards CCT and into a consultant post, you may be interested in developing a clinical teaching career but feel unclear about how to navigate this. Many skills that you h...

‘Clinicians who have never missed the diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome or have never been fooled by attempting to establish its cause should refer their patients with suspected hypercortisolism to someone who has.’ This quote, by Professor James Findling, an expert in Cushing’s syndrome, is a reminder of the difficulties in diagnosing Cushing’s syndrome. These difficulties in part reflect the increasing incidence of obesity, hypertension and type 2 diabetes....

‘Clinicians who have never missed the diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome or have never been fooled by attempting to establish its cause should refer their patients with suspected hypercortisolism to someone who has.’ This quote, by Professor James Findling, an expert in Cushing’s syndrome, is a reminder of the difficulties in diagnosing Cushing’s syndrome. These difficulties in part reflect the increasing incidence of obesity, hypertension and type 2 diabetes....

I am a Consultant Endocrinologist and Reader in Endocrinology. I have a strong interest in undergraduate education and hold various educational roles at Imperial College London, including Head of Year 1, BSc in Biomedical Sciences. This is a new degree course aimed at students who want careers as biomedical researchers, tackling important human diseases. Hence, early development of laboratory skills is the backbone of this course and we have worked hard to develop new approach...

Introduction: In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Spanish Group of Diabetes and Pregnancy published a consensus document establishing the alternative diagnostic criteria for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in case of impossibility to perform the two-step traditional approach due to the COVID-19 sanitary emergency. This study aims to compare different characteristics of pregnant women who tested positive in the O’Sullivan test in the same pregnancy trimester...