Endocrinology Flashcards
What is primary (Addison’s disease)?
autoimmune, infections, disease of the adrenal gland = decrease in cortisol secretion
- adrenal gland destruction causing lack of cortisol and aldosterone secretion (usually autoimmune)
- autoimmune (70%), infectious (tuberculosis), vascular (thrombosis/hemorrhage), metastatic, medications (rifampin, barbiturates, phenytoin, ketoconazole)
- dx: increased ACTH, decreased cortisol, decreased aldosterone
What is secondary adrenal insufficiency?
pituitary adenoma or discontinuation of steroid - pituitary failure
- exogenous steroid use (most common); hypopituitarism
- dx: decreased ACTH, decreased cortisol, normal aldosterone
What is adrenal crisis?
acute adrenal insufficiency
How is adrenal insufficiency dx?
- 8 am serum cortisol and plasma ACTH alone with ACTH stimulation test
- high ACTH, low cortisol = primary
- low SCTH, low cortisol = secondary
- CRH stimulation test: differentiates between causes of adrenal insufficiency
- primary/Addison’s (adrenal): high ACTH, low cortisol
- secondary (pituitary): Low ACTH, low cortisol
- adrenal autoantibodies can be assessed; CXR for TB (CT of adrenals)
- autoimmune: atrophied adrenals
- TB/granulomas: enlarged adrenals + calcification
- bilateral adrenal hyperplasia = genetic enzyme defect
How is the tx for adrenal insufficiency?
- addison’s: cortisol replacement therapy + androgen replacement
- glucocorticoid + mineralocorticoid = hydrocortison = 1st line, fludrocortisone for primary Addison’s disease only
- secondary: cause = focus of treatment (pituitary adenoma resection, wean steroid therapy slowly)
What is hyperthyroidism?
is the production of too much thyroxine hormone
-It can increase metabolism and accelerate the body’s metabolism, causing unintentional weight loss and a rapid or irregular heartbeat
What is the etiology of hyperthyroidism?
grave’s disease (autoimmune), toxic adenoma, thyroiditis, pregnancy, amiodarone
What are the features of hypertyroidism?
weight loss, anxiety, war, moist skin, onycholysis, insomnia, fine tremor, fatigue, muscle cramps, weakness, amenorrhea, tachycardia, palpitations, systolic HTN, PVCs, fib, brittle hair, heat intolerance, hyperreflexia
- graves - diffuse goiter with a bruit, exophthalmos, pretrial myxedema
- thyroid storm - fever, tachycardia, delirium
How is hyperthyroidism?
- TSH (best test)
- decreased in primary disease (decrease TSH and increase free T4)
- elevated in secondary disease (increase TSH and increase free T4)
- T4: elevated although may be normal
- RAIU study shows increased uptake in graves disease and toxic multi nodular goiter
- graves: diffusely high uptake
- toxic multi nodular: discrete areas of high uptake
What are the antibodies with hyperthyroidism?
graves: anti-thyrotropin antibodies
What is the tx for hyperthyroidism?
- beta-blockers (symptomatic), methimazole/propylthirouacil, radioactive iodine, thyroidectomy
- thyroid storm - prompt beta-blockers, hydrocortisone, methimazole/propylthiouracil, iodine
- thyroidectomy - most likely complication is recurrent laryngeal nerve damage (hoarseness)
What do you do about antithyroid drugs during pregnancy?
propylthiouracil used to be the drug of choice during pregnancy because it causes less severe birth defects than methimazole, but experts now recommend that propylthiouracil be given during the first trimester only, this is because there have been rare cases of liver damage in people taking propylthiouracil, after the first trimester, women should switch to methimazole for the rest of the pregnancy
-for women who are nursing, methimazole is probably a better choice than propylthiouracil (to avoid liver side effects)
What is Cushing’s syndrome?
a collection of signs and symptoms due to prolonged exposure to excess cortisol
-symptoms from increase cortisol secretion, it doesn’t specify cause or source of excess
What is cushing disease?
ACTH secreting pituitary micro adenoma usually very small on anterior pituitary; F 3x > M
-secondary - increase cortisol due to ACTH excess, typically caused by a pituitary adenoma - ACTH causes adrenals to secret cortisol
What are the features of Cushing disease?
- hypercortisolism (increase cortisol) = obestiy (buffalo hump, moon facies, supraclavicular pads), HTN, thirst, polyuria, hypokalemia
- proximal muscle weakness, pigmented striae, backache, headache, oligomenorrhea/amenorrhea/ED; emotional lability/psychosis
How is Cushing disease dx?
confirming high cortisol with a 24 hr urine free cortisol, late-night serum cortisol, and/or low-dose dexamethasone suppression test
- 24-hour urinary free cortisol is the most reliable index of cortisol secretion
- once confirmed, the source of the high cortisol needs to be determined with an ACTH level
- a high ACTH level indicated an ACTH dependent cause, a low ACTH level indicates an ACTH independent cause (plasma or serum ACTH <20 pg/mL suggests adrenal tumor
- if it is an ACTH dependent cause, an MRI of the brain should be done to look for pituitary adenoma (cushing disease), if it is an ACTH independent cause, a CT of adrenals should be done to look for an adrneal mass such as an adenoma
What is low dose dexamethasone suppression test?
- give a steroid (dexamethasone) = failure of steroid to decrease cortisol levels is diagnostic = proceed next to high dose dexamethasone suppression test = no suppression = Cushing’s syndrome
- suppression < 5 ugs/dL excludes Cushing with some certainty
What is the tx for Cushing disease?
transsphenoidal selective resection of pituitary tumor cures 75-90%
- Irradiation provides remission in 50-60%
- 95% 5-year survival
What is hypothyroidism?
95% are autoimmune; many associated with other autoimmune issues
-hashimoto’s (chronic lymphocytic/autoimmune), previous thyroidectomy/iodine, ablation, congenital
What are the features of hypothyroidism?
weakness, dry/coarse hair, lethargy, slow speech, cold intolerance, eyelid edema, forgetfulness, facial edema, constipation, coarse hair, weight gain, facial dullness, depression, anemia, bradycardia, hyperreflexia, enlarged thyroid
How is hypothyroidism dx?
the best test is TSH, hasimoto’s: antithyroid peroxidase, antithyroglobulin antiboides
- normal/low normal free T4 and TSH = euthyroid
- low free T4 and elevated TSH = primary hypothyroid
- low free T4 and low/normal TSH = secondary hypothyroid
- normal free T4 and elevated TSH = subclinical hypothyroid
What is the tx for hypothyroidism?
levothyroxine
-check levels of thyroid frequently
What is diabetes insipidus?
caused by a deficiency of or resistance to vasopressin (ADH), which decreases the kidneys’ ability to reabsorb water, resulting in massive polyuria
What is central diabetes insipidus?
deficiency of ADH from posterior pituitary/hypothalamus
-no ADH production most common type: idiopathic, autoimmune destruction of posterior pituitary from head trauma, brain tumor, infection, or sarcoidosis