This post is adapted for the Health & Medical Case Studies created by the Master of Medical Biotechnology program of the University of Windsor. This work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International License.
Endocrinology Case Studies
Endocrinology is the branch of medicine dealing with the conditions of endocrine glands and their secreted hormones. There are several endocrine glands in the human body namely, the Pituitary, Hypothalamus, Thyroid, Parathyroid, Thymus, Pancreas, Adrenal glands, Testis, and Ovary.
Common endocrine diseases
- Diabetes type 1 & 2
- Hyperthyroidism and Hypothyroidism
- Addison’s disease
- Cushing syndrome
- Osteoporosis
- Obesity
- Hypopituitarism and Hyperpituiterism.
- Acromegaly etc.
Common signs and symptoms
- Unexplained weight loss or gain
- Infertility
- Fatigue
- Nausea & vomiting
- Headache
- Diarrhea or constipation
- High or low blood pressure
- High or low blood sugar
- Heat or cold intolerance
- Goiter
- Menstrual abnormality etc.
Common investigations
- Serum hormone levels
- Ultrasonogram
- CT scan
- MRI scan
- Positron emission tomography or PET scan
- Scintigraphy
- FNAC
- Biopsy
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An overactive thyroid, occurring when the thyroid gland produces an excess amount of hormone thyroxine.
Hypothyroidism is a common condition where the thyroid doesn't create and release enough thyroid hormone into your bloodstream.
Osteoporosis is a disease that weakens bones to the point where they break easily—most often, bones in the hip, backbone (spine), and wrist.
Obesity is a complex disease involving an excessive amount of body fat.
Pituitary gland fails to produce one or more hormones, or doesn't produce enough hormones.
High activity in pituitary or create/release more pituitary hormones than normal.
Positron emission tomography (PET is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including blood flow, regional chemical composition, and absorption.
Scintigraphy (from Latin scintilla, "spark"), also known as a gamma scan, is a diagnostic test in nuclear medicine, where radioisotopes attached to drugs that travel to a specific organ or tissue (radiopharmaceuticals) are taken internally and the emitted gamma radiation is captured by external detectors (gamma cameras) to form two-dimensional images in a similar process to the capture of x-ray images.
Fine-needle aspiration cytology