Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Treatment of patients with acromegaly caused by pituitary adenoma with somatostatin analogues leads to significant tumour shrinkage in 23–73% of the cases. Although not widely accepted, it has been suggested that the surgical remission rate may be improved by pre-operative treatment with these agents.Aim: To assess whether the degree of tumour shrinkage by lanreotide offered pre-operatively affects the surgical success in acromegalics wi...

A 47 year old Macedonian Personal Trainer presented with 4 days of vomiting, abdominal pain and profuse sweating. He admitted abusing anabolic steroids 20 years previously but never insulin. The presenting capillary blood glucose (CBG) was 1.7 mmol/L, blood pressure (BP) 182/106 mmHg, pulse 62 bpm. On examination, he was sweaty, pale and cold. Blood was drawn for measurement of insulin, C-peptide, glucose, cortisol and thyroid function tests. He was treated with 50% dextrose a...

Background: Pituitary apoplexy is a neurological emergency, whose prevalence is generally underestimated. The overall prevalence ranges from 0.6 to 27.7% of all pituitary tumours.Methodology: Retrospective analysis of hospital medical records of 274 patients with pituitary adenoma who presented to us between 1996–2006 was done.Results: Of the 274 patients analysed, 84 had features of pituitary apoplexy (31%) Mean age was 44.7 ...

The Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) gene is located on chromosome 11q13 and patients with mutations develop parathyroid, pancreatic and pituitary tumours. MEN1 mutations also cause familial isolated primary hyperparathyroidism (FIHP) and the same MEN1 mutations, in different families, can cause either FIHP or MEN1. This emphasises the importance of genetic background in altering the expression of a mutation, and suggests the presence of genetic ...

Aim: To study patients with Bone metastases in papillary carcinoma thyroid and the role of I-131 ablation.Methods: Retrospective analysis of patients with papillary carcinoma of thyroid between 1960–2005 in our institution.Results: Of 1538 patients who had thyroid carcinoma, papillary carcinoma was seen in 1228 (79.8%), and 21 patients with papillary carcinoma (1.71%) had bone metastases. Seventy percent of them were between 4...

Background: Pheochromocytomas are tumors arising from chromaffin cells diagnosed in <1% of patient evaluated for hypertension.Methodology: A retrospective analysis of case records of those patients with histopathologically confirmed pheochromocytoma in our hospital from 1993–2006 (14 years) was conducted.Result: A total of 94 patients were diagnosed to have pheochromocytoma during this period. The median age at presentatio...

Thyroid cancer is the commonest endocrine malignancy. Recently, a European consensus statement for the management of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma has been published1. The diagnostic and follow up protocols differ from previous guidelines by the use of neck ultrasound and recombinant human thyroglobulin (rhTSH) measurements. The aim of this study was to determine the current management of suspicious thyroid nodules and the follow up of thyroid cance...

Objective: To investigate a family with the unusual combination of Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia (MEN1) and the McCune-Albright syndrome for mutations of the MEN1 and GNAS1 genes. MEN1 is an autosomal dominant disorder characterised by parathyroid, pancreatic and pituitary tumours whereas the McCune-Albright syndrome is a sporadic disorder characterised by polyostotic fibrous dysplasia, skin pigmentation and hyperfunctioning endocrine tumours.<p class="abstext...

Hypothalamic MC4R receptors are Galphas-coupled GPCR’s that mediate the satiety response to αMSH. MC4R expression predominates in the PVN/VMH regions of the hypothalamus, regulating satiety gene expression (e.g. Bdnf). Human MC4R mutations often result in compromised Galphas-cAMP-PKA signalling and obesity onset. However, downstream signalling pathways have yet to be elucidated. We have investigated the potential for αMSH to stimulat...