Quantification of in vivo pituitary hormone secretion requires simultaneous appraisal of implicit 1) secretory-burst waveform, mass, and stochastic pulse timing; 2) basal secretion; 3) biexponential elimination kinetics; and 4) random experimental error (Keenan DM, Licinio J, and Veldhuis JD. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98: 4028-4033, 2001). The present study extends this analytic formalism to allow...

Background Infantile spasm is a rare condition in infants from 4 to 7 months old. Treatment varies in different cases. Corticosteroids and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) are the most widely used treatment options; however, there are debates on their efficacy. The aim of our study is to compare corticosteroid treatment with ACTH in patients with infantile spasm. Materials and Me...

s | 49 Aims: This project aims to assess whether systemic treatment with ketamine may improve the behavioural response in an animal model of a treatment resistant condition. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats received subcutaneous injections of ACTH (100ug/rat/day) or vehicle during 14 days. On the 14th day the animals were exposed to the pre-test session of forced swim (FST) and after 24h they ...

Familial glucocorticoid deficiency (FGD) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by severe glucocorticoid deficiency associated with failure of adrenal responsiveness to ACTH but no mineralocorticoid deficiency. We report a 2 month-old boy of nonconsanguineous parents, presented with hyperpigmentation. Physical examination showed diffuse dark skin of body including, oral mucosa, gu...

s | 49 Aims: This project aims to assess whether systemic treatment with ketamine may improve the behavioural response in an animal model of a treatment resistant condition. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats received subcutaneous injections of ACTH (100ug/rat/day) or vehicle during 14 days. On the 14th day the animals were exposed to the pre-test session of forced swim (FST) and after 24h they ...

s | 49 Aims: This project aims to assess whether systemic treatment with ketamine may improve the behavioural response in an animal model of a treatment resistant condition. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats received subcutaneous injections of ACTH (100ug/rat/day) or vehicle during 14 days. On the 14th day the animals were exposed to the pre-test session of forced swim (FST) and after 24h they ...

The prevalence of Addison’s disease in South Africa is lower than in Western countries. This is concerning, since patients could be dying, undiagnosed. Enhanced awareness of this highly treatable condition is warranted. The epidemiology, aetiology, clinical presentation, screening and management of Addison’s disease are discussed. Autoimmunity predominated as the underlying aetiology mostly in ...

Introduction: Glucocorticoids are considered the cornerstone of the induction phase in all treatment protocols of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Among the adverse effects of high-dose glucocorticoid treatment, adrenal insufficiency is secondary to suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This drawback of exogenous steroid therapy gains a contemporary particular relevan...

INTRODUCTION Identification of risk factors for diminished cortisol response to adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) in the critically ill could facilitate recognition of relative adrenal insufficiency in these patients. Therefore, we studied predictors of a low cortisol response to ACTH. METHODS A retrospective cohort study was conducted in a general intensive care unit of a university hospit...