Posted on

Endocrinology and Sports Medicine

Dr. Curtis

On April 24th and May 1st, Dr. Vanessa Curtis provided talks on endocrine sports topics to a national audience. Her talks were coordinated by the America Medical Society for Sports Medicine. Her national audience exceeded 100 sports medicine fellows. In particular, her talk on May 1 on “Testosterone, sex, and gender in sports“, given in collaboration with Dr. Britt Marcussen, drew considerable attention. The title slides from her talks are shown below. In the clinic, Dr. Curtis’s provides her expert knowledge in the care of hormonal issues in student athletes. We would be remiss not to mention that Dr. Curtis is an accomplished athlete herself, including podiums placement in bicycle criterium/related races. We are fortunate to have her expertise and experience on our faculty and in our clinics.

Posted on

Dr. Pinnaro’s New Research Findings Regarding Glycemic Responses in Turner Syndrome

Dr. Pinnaro

There appears to be an increased risk of developing diabetes for persons with Turner syndrome. The exact reasons for this are enigmatic, as there have been very few studies. This lack of knowledge makes it difficult to know how best to screen for and help prevent diabetes in this population. To help address this, pediatric endocrine fellow Dr. Pinnaro has initiated a study of blood levels levels in persons with Turner syndrome who do not have diabetes. The initial results from this study suggest a greater degree of atypical glucose levels in those with Turner syndrome as compared to controls. This past weekend, Dr. Pinnaro would have presented these initial results at the national Pediatric Endocrine Society meeting in Texas (cancelled due to COVID-19). Her faculty mentors for this study were Drs. Katie Larson Ode and Andrew Norris.

Posted on

Thyroid Eye Disease can Accompany Hypothyroidism

  • Dr. Tuttle
  • Dr. Pesce

We most commonly associate thyroid eye disease as occurring in the context of Graves disease. However, the same immunologic processes that drive Graves thyroid eye disease can also occur in the context of hypothyroidism. Dr. Alex Tuttle woudl have just presented such a case this weekend at the annual Pediatric Endocrine Society meeting originally planned to occur in Texas. His presentation was entitled: “Active Thyroid Eye Disease in a Pediatric Patient with Hypothyroidism”. This serves as a reminder that it is important for even otherwise routine cases of hypothyroidism to receive expert care. Dr. Tuttle is completing his pediatric residency at the University of Iowa this year. We are thrilled that on July 1 he will join our division as a pediatric endocrine fellow. On this case report, he was mentored by pediatric thyroid expert Dr. Liuska Pesce.

Posted on

Dr. Larson Ode to Direct Clinical Research Core

Dr. Larson Ode

Dr. Katie Larson Ode has been named director of the Clinical Core component of the University of Iowa’s Center for Gene Therapy of Cystic Fibrosis. The NIH grant funding for this project was just renewed. Her core will support maintenance and growth of a Cystic Fibrosis biobank which will obtain/provide clinical samples from/to researchers in cystic fibrosis for translational projects. Congratulations to Dr. Larson Ode on your excellent work.

Posted on

Dr. Kanner to Co-chair Planning Workshops for an Upcoming National Meeting Focused on Pediatric & Adolescent Gynecology

Dr. Kanner

By invitation, Dr. Lauren Kanner has been installed as the Workshops Co-Chair on the Program Committee for the North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (NASPAG) 2021 Annual Clinical & Research Meeting. In this role, she will help plan and set the agenda for the workshops to occur at this national meeting. She also is now the pediatric endocrine liason for the Fellow Research Consortium of NASPAG. She remains a member of the NASPAG education committee, a role she has maintained since April 2018. Thanks to Dr. Kanner for her hard work in this important area.

Posted on

Dr. Tansey Helps Answer the Challenges of Type 1 Diabetes Care During COVID-19

Dr. Tansey

As the COVID-19 pandemic began impacting the region in March 2020, it quickly became apparent that the pandemic would impact our Division of Pediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes ability to provide healthcare and would adversely impact many of the children and families for whom we provide care. In response to this arising situation, the Leona M. And Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust issued a call for grant proposals aimed at providing local solutions relating to type 1 diabetes care. Dr. Tansey answered this call, writing a proposal to aid with delivery of healthcare for those with type 1 diabetes cared for by our clinic. The goal of the Helmsley program is to “improve the lives of all people living with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Working closely with key players across the T1D ecosystem – patients, physicians, caregivers, researchers, government agencies, funders, pharmaceutical companies, device makers, insurers, and community organizations – we seek to improve care and ultimately prevent the disease.” I am pleased to announce that the proposal created by Dr. Tansey has been approved and funded, as of today. The funds will help our team provide services to our patients with type 1 diabetes, through improved telemedicine education opportunities, and will help provide services to those whom have been directly affected by COVID-19. My deepest gratitude to Dr. Tansey for taking the initiative and rapidly helping answer the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Posted on

Better Congenital Hypothyroidism Screening

Andrew Norris, MD PhDPost by
Andrew Norris, MD PhD
Director, Pediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes
University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital

I am excited to report that the Iowa newborn screening program will begin using age-adjusted TSH cut-offs starting March 30, 2020. The purpose is to better screen newborns for congenital hypothyroidism, which is a condition that if untreated leads to profound deficiencies in brain development and body growth. The cutoff changes are expected to improve both the specificity and sensitivity of the screen. Otherwise, in general, there will be no change in workflow as involves endocrinologists and primary care providers. Only the cutoffs are changing. Despite these improvements, the newborn screen remains only a screening test and should not be used as a quantitative test to examine an infant in whom you suspect a thyroid abnormality.

Posted on

Four Messages Regarding COVID-19 & Pediatric Endocrinology

click each to open/close

We remain available 24/7: Please know that we are here for our patients. We and other centers have noticed that patients are often sicker than in the past when they come for medical care, presumably because they have delayed seeking care out of fear of contracting COVID-19. Importantly, please know that our medical center remains one of the safest places. All visitors are screened, including by temperature scanning cameras, and all staff maintain strict precautions. If you have questions or concerns about managing your endocrine condition, please contact us by phone/email/fax. If you are ill and might benefit from endocrine advice, we will work hard with you over the phone to help keep you from needing to come to the hospital. As of May 4, we have carefully re-opened our outpatient clinic for routine visits, in accordance with policies set by the State of Iowa. Additionally, we can conduct selected routine visits not requiring physical examination via video-chat. Contact us and we will help you arrange a clinic visit. Further information can be found at our official clinical website.


A reassuring note: The healthcare community is learning more about the effects of COVID-19 on specific patients. You may have read that diabetes is a risk factor for severe COVID-19. Please know however that this data regards adults, mainly older adults. On March 25th, our European colleagues reported their impression that pediatric-aged patients with diabetes are not at increased risk of severe COVID-19. Likewise, initial data reports from the US have not mentioned diabetes as a pediatric-aged risk factor. On May 29, a peer-reviewed French scientific article reported similar findings. See this blog post for more details. It would be reasonable to assume the same is likely true for pediatric-aged patients with various endocrine disease, though we have yet to see any data. In any case, it remains important to be careful with your diabetes and endocrine medications. For youth with diabetes, aim to control your blood sugars as best possible, make sure to take your long-acting insulin / keep your insulin pump in good working order. The reason to keep your blood sugars in range as best possible is that persons with diabetes have a higher risk of needing to be hospitalized with COVID if their blood sugar have been running higher (see our review of this data). For youth with adrenal insufficiency, make sure to take your prescribed hydrocortisone or other steroids, and give stress dose steroids if ill etc as instructed. Keep your prescriptions up. Be sure to minimize exposures, practice social distancing, frequent hand washing, etc. See our hospital COVID-19 website for additional information.


COVID-19 increases risk of DKA: Data has now been published showing that many persons with type 1 diabetes who develop COVID-19 will develop diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Our summary of the study can be found here (link). If you or your loved one has type 1 diabetes, and develops symptoms of COVID-19, be sure to contact your diabetes doctor to help provide advice on how to prevent DKA. Fluids, carbohydrates, ketone checks, and extra insulin are very important in this regard. We remain on call 24×7 to assist.


Adrenal insufficiency may increase COVID-19 risk: Several endocrine sources have published opinions suggesting that adrenal insufficiency may predispose persons to severe COVID-19. Our summary of these opinions can be found here (link). If you or your loved one has adrenal insufficiency, it might be important to minimize COVID-19 exposures, wear protective masks, practice social distancing and frequent hand washing, etc. If you have questions or concerns, we are happy to discuss. If you think you have developed COVID-19, please know that we remain on call 24×7 to assist.

Posted on

Hormone-Secreting Pituitary Tumors

“When these tumors occur in children, the manifestations are often different than in adults.“

Andrew Norris, MD PhDPost by
Andrew Norris, MD PhD
Director, Pediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes
University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital

A concise review of hormone-secreting pituitary tumors and their clinical syndromes appears in today’s New England Journal of Medicine. The article starts by noting that hormone secreting pituitary adenomas account for ~15% of all intercranial tumors. Although the article is informative and well written, it largely omits the characteristics of these disorders in childhood. When these tumors occur in children, the manifestations are often different than in adults. Below I have tabulated the anterior pituitary hormones that can be oversecreted by pituitary adenomas, and their common related childhood syndromes / symptoms. The table is listed in order of prevalence, from occasional to exceedingly rare (just a few case reports ever). Some of the symptoms of these conditions are common and non-specific (e.g. headache) and usually do not indicate a pituitary adenoma. Other symptoms almost always warrant an endocrine workup, especially growth failure, galactorrhea, precocious puberty, pubertal failure, gigantism, and acromegaly. On the flip side of hormone-secreting adenomas are pituitary adenomas that do not secrete hormones. Even though such adenomas do not secrete hormones, they eventually can lead to symptoms once their size impinges on local function. These manifestations can include visual field defects, headache, deficiency of pituitary hormones though prolactin can be modestly elevated due to pituitary stalk compression. Importantly, hormone secreting adenomas can also lead to these size-related effects as well.

Hormone oversecretedChildhood manifestations
Prolactin
(prevalence ~1/10,000)

Menstrual disturbance (girls)
Galactorrhea (girls)
Gynecomastia (boys)
Pubertal delay/failure (boys)
ACTH
(incidence <1/million/yr)		Weight gain
Growth failure
Striae
Hypertension
Amenorrhea (girls)
Hirsutism (girls)
Growth hormone (rare)Gigantism
Acromegaly
TSH (exceedingly rare)Hyperthyroidism
Headache
LH, FSH (exceedingly rare)Precocious puberty
Posted on

Can Insulin Degludec Reduce Ketoacidosis Rates? Exciting New Data Suggests “Maybe”.

Andrew Norris, MD PhDPost by
Andrew Norris, MD PhD
Director, Pediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes
University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a diabetes emergency that can result in death when not detected quickly and treated in a timely fashion.  DKA is most commonly caused by taking insufficient insulin, especially forgetting to take long acting insulin, or taking insufficient extra insulin during illness. Children and adolescents with diabetes are at particular risk to develop DKA. For reasons that are not fully understood, rates of DKA are increasing (see this 2018 commentary in Diabetes Care). Insulin degludec is an ultra-long-acting insulin analog. Its duration of action exceeds 30 hours, which is longer than other current long acting insulin types.  For this reason, it has been postulated that use of insulin degludec might reduce DKA risk when compared to other long-acting insulin analogs, especially among those who occasionally forget to take their long acting insulin. However, evidence has mixed. A study in 2015 Pediatric Diabetes found a reduction in ketosis when comparing children on degludec versus insulin detemir (note: the study was funded by Novo Nordisk, the maker of both degludec and detemir).  This is the least meaningful of all possible comparisons since insulin detemir is the shortest acting of current long acting insulins. This 2015 European regulatory document presents an analysis of DKA rates from a company trial comparing insulin degludec versus detemir, finding no differences. A study published in 2018 Diabetes Therapy examined 42 adults who switched to insulin degludec found fewer DKA events after the switch, though the study was not powered for statistical conclusions (again this study was funded by Novo Nordisk). This month, work published in Feb 2020 Hormone Research in Paediatrics reports a retrospective study of 35 adolescents with DKA who switched from insulin glargine (in its most common “U100” formulation) to insulin degludec. The adolescents experienced significantly fewer DKA episodes after the switch. This exciting data suggests that degludec may indeed help reduce risks of DKA in youth at risk.  Although these are encouraging, the retrospective nature of the study and lack of a control group prevents firm conclusions. In general, DKA rates are expected to subside with time in adolescents as they mature and better learn to prevent this unpleasant complication. A control group of adolescents who did not switch to degludec would have helped interpret the results. Degludec has other benefits, especially less hypoglycemia compared to other long acting insulins (see this 2018 meta-analysis).