Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Mild autonomous cortisol secretion (MACS) in patients with adrenal incidentalomas has been associated with elevated cortisol levels during the nocturnal period resulting in a disturbed cortisol rhythm. We hypothesised that administration of nocturnal metyrapone, an 11-beta-hydroxylase inhibitor, previously shown to restore cortisol rhythm in MACS patients, could reduce metabolic complications in this patient group.Met...

Background: The hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) controls the neuroendocrine response to psychological and physiological stress. The balance of the hormones synthesised and secreted by these organs is tightly regulated. However, there are intrinsic differences in the relative expression of these hormones depending on sex, which can influence the magnitude of the endocrine response to stressors or the response to pharmacological treatments. Herein, we ...

Adrenal insufficiency (AI) is life-threatening and can present alone or in combination with other co-morbidities. Acute porphyria attacks can also be serious, resulting in permanent disability or death and symptoms can be similar to AI. Previous literature describing hormonal perturbations in porphyria suggest an association between the two conditions. We were referred a family with 4 individuals with porphyria and AI, the clinical picture included global developmental delay, ...

Aims: Exertional hyperthermia stimulates the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis, increasing the availability of free cortisol in body fluids and opening a window onto physical stress for novel biosensing technologies. This study aimed to determine the impact of prolonged endurance exercise on relationships described for shorter activity bouts, by characterising interactions between salivary indices of glucocorticoid activity, serum total cortisol response and...