Endocrine Abstracts

This session will offer an opportunity to discuss the best management of adult patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). Although one in 5 patients with adrenal insufficiency has CAH as the underlying cause the recent UK CaHASE survey (JCE&M 2010) has shown that less than 10% of adult UK CAH patients receive endocrine specialist care. This contrasts with the need for specialist provision of care by a multi-disciplinary team that is recognised by experts in the fi...

Amiodarone has been used widely for treating resistant tachyarrhythmias in the past three decades. It is an iodinated benzofuran derivative with a structural formula that closely resembles that of thyroid hormones and contains about 37% of organic iodine by weight, from which 10% is deiodinated to yield free iodide. Given the daily maintenance dose of amiodarone between 100–600 mg daily, about 3.5–21 mg of iodide are released into the systemic circulation, equivalent...

The treatment of Acromegaly includes radiotherapy, surgery, and medical treatment to reduce GH levels. The aim of treatment is to reduce GH levels to a “safe” level. The secretion of GH in normal individuals is pulsatile, so that most normal people have concentrations of GH close to zero for most of the time, with concentrations rising to about 6 ng/ml three or ten times per day (approx 20 mU/l). The height and frequency of these GH peaks is variable. However because...

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Controversy exists in the surgical treatment of patients with MEN 1 in relation to the timing and extent of interventions. Hyperparathyroidism in MEN 1 is caused by multiglandular disease and associated with high risk of supernumary glands. The findings on preoperative ultrasound and MIBI scans should not deter the surgeon from removing at least 3 parathyroid glands and the cervical thymus (1). Even subtotal parathyroidectomy (3½ glands) is associated with time dependant ...

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) represent a very heterogenous group of neoplasms, comprising approximately 2% of all malignant tumors of gastroenteropancreatic system. Although they are characterized by a relatively slow tumor growth, they have a malignant potential and, in fact, most of them are diagnosed when distant metastases have been developed. NETs, when functioning, are causing symptoms related not only to the tumour mass itself, but also to the specific hormonal peptide ...

Although polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is arguably the commonest endocrine condition, affecting 7% of women, medical students and junior doctors often find it difficult to grasp its pathophysiology. This workshop describes a paradigm to teach about PCOS and uses this framework to describe lifestyle, hormonal and metabolic strategies for the regulation of periods and optimisation of fertility.Declaration of interest: There is no conflict of interest th...

Optogenetics is the combination of genetic and optical methods to control specific events in live cells with high temporal and spatial precision. In 2010, optogenetics was chosen as the Method of the Year across all fields of science and engineering by Nature Methods. Two methods for the photocontrolled activation of apoptosis in cancer cells will be contrasted; one that relies on the development of externally administered biophotonic nanoswitches and the second, in which the ...

Understanding transcription factor activity is critical for defining mechanisms of gene regulation in disease. The traditional view of transcription factors getting recruited to promoters of target genes is too simplistic. We now know that many transcription factors regulate genes from enhancers or cis-regulatory elements that are in some cases, significant distances from the target gene. Furthermore, we know that much of the human genome can be transcribed under one condition...