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Welcome!
 | The Pituitary Foundation (UK)
Dorset Awareness for Pituitary illness
The Dorset and Hampshire websites are under-going a restructure and re-editing.
30th April 2008
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The National Organisation, the Pituitary Foundation (UK) based in Bristol received funding for a 3-year awareness programme: 2003-2005. During its 2nd year, when the Foundation was making most of its contacts to GPs, I decided to create a website for the South-West and starting with the county where I am currently based, Dorset. During the first few months we have now had 500 visitors and I am restructuring the site and hoping to implement changes as a result of the many conversations from friends and colleagues and carers.
Do make contact should you wish. Either as patient, Health Professional or possibly a volunteer. The website continues to evolve and it is hoped this will provide a place to visit when browsing other Community projects and also to provide a direct link and response from the National office at Bristol and their excellent team nation-wide.
Finally but not least; Pituitary Foundation has re-introduced it's Telephone Buddies where there will be an experienced person the other end to talk and discuss concerns and to request advice. Please visit the Contact's Page for full details.
Your comments will be welcomed and if there is something you feel should be here but you cannot find; please do not hesitate to send an email or telephone me.
Peter Randle
Dorset Pituitary Foundation Awareness Representative
Copyright © 2004-2008 Peter Randle
Email: awarenessindorset@pituitary.org.uk
Voice: 07050 26 28 50
Copyright © 2004 The Pituitary Foundation,
PO Box 1944, Bristol, BS99 2UB
Tel/fax: 0845 450 0375 .
E-mail: helpline@pituitary.org.uk
Registered Charity No: 1058968.
Registered Company No: 3253584 |
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NICE Victory - Story from National HQ
The Pituitary Foundation's Input to the NICE Appraisal of Human Growth Hormone in Adults Victory!
NICE Guidelines for Adult Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy are published on their website (www.nice.org.uk) from Wednesday 27th August.
Over two and a half years after it started, a long and arduous struggle with two rounds of Appraisal meetings and two Appeals – and indeterminate amount of stress for GH patients - we now have proposed Guidelines that we can live with.
A year ago NICE said that no Growth Hormone Deficient Adult could receive the vital hormone replacement they need. Now they have agreed that patients can be selected – as is current UK practice – and have defined their criteria of those patients they deem ‘cost-effective’.
Despite the high hurdles produced by the health economics, many patients will be able to benefit. Importantly, patients currently on treatment will be able to remain on treatment, not be taken off as had previously been suggested.
The Pituitary Foundation looks forward to a speedy publication of the NICE guidelines, and that this, in turn, helps to overcome post-code resistance in many Health Authorities to funding this essential treatment
Pituitary Foundation (UK)
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Area CoOrdinator
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New Article to be pulished shortly
1st May 2008 |
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Stop Press Items
Edited articles to be re-published very soon.
30th April 2008
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Take extra care when buying medication online
27th September - 3rd October 2004
Viagra bought online often fake
Scientists who have applied a new technique to analysing counterfeit medicines have discovered that around half the tablets bought from internet sources were counterfeit. The technique, near-infra-red microscopy, is capable of determining what ingredients are present in a tablet with considerable accuracy, and was used to analyse genuine Viagra tablets, tablets seized by the MHRA, and generic tablets from outside the UK. Their results showed that the generic tablets generally contained the stated quantity of sildenafil, but that excipients often differed. Most of the counterfeit tablets contained less than the stated quantity of sildenafil and different excipients.
BBC News report
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20th - 26th September 2004
The Pituitary Foundation
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21 September 2004
Haemoglobin A1c associated with cardiovascular mortality even without diabetes
Is this the next big risk factor for cardiovascular prevention? A prospective cohort study involving over 10,000 people suggests a strong association between levels of haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and cardiovascular mortality, even in people without known diabetes. The increase in risk with increased levels was continuous and significant throughout the distribution and was independent of other known risk factors. People with HbA1c levels <5% had the lowest cardiovascular mortality; above this, a 1% increase in level was associated with a relative risk of death from any cause of around 1.24 (men) or 1.28 (women). The authors conclude that increased level of HbA1c is a marker for increased risk of cardiovascular mortality, and that their findings support trials of interventions to reduce HbA1c levels in people without diabetes. An editorial discusses the significance of this and an accompanying meta-analysis that indicates that a similar relationship applies in diabetics.
Ann Intern Med 2004; 141: 413-20 and 475-6 (editorial) - Annals of Internal Medicine website
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Coronation Street: Sunita has a prolactinoma.
The Pituitary Foundation
Coronation Street story line has Sunita with a Pituitary illness - a prolactinoma - and sadly, Sunita, requires surgery.
Story on the National website, link below:
http://www.pituitary.org.uk/corrie.htm
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NHS Direct
NHS Direct and other changes to NHS Agencies
Artcile being preapred and to include bills currently before the UK Parliament
30th April 2008
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News Published:
Monday 5 April 2004
Reference number:
2004/0131
Millions of patients are set to become health experts at the click of a mouse, as comprehensive health information from the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has been launched on NHS Direct Online.
Building on the best: Choice, responsiveness and equity in the NHS - response document 9/12/2003
Developing NHS Direct: a strategy document for the next three years
NHS Direct Online (external link)
Notes to editor
Best Treatments is available on NHS Direct Online..
Best Treatments provides evidenced based information on the choice of possible treatments for 60 chronic conditions, ranking them according to effectiveness and explaining the risks and benefits. Conditions covered include alzheimers, asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, prostate cancer and strokes. It has been written from a patient perspective, using clear, jargon-free language.
Best Treatments is based on Clinical Evidence, a print and web-based resource used by health professionals which tells them what treatments work and what don’t, based on the best research evidence available. People using ‘Best Treatments’ can click to go and look at the ‘doctors’ version’ of the same topic if they wish.
It is intended that some Best Treatments information will be translated into a range of minority community languages during 2004/5.
Best Treatments will enrich the information already available on the NHS Direct Online website. This includes a self-help guide to treating common health problems at home; an encyclopaedia covering hundreds of health topics; frequently asked questions; a searchable database of local health services, and an online service for requesting health information. The NHS Direct Online website has received over 6 million visits in the last year, an increase of 50% on the previous year.
This forms part of the work to deliver an ‘Information Revolution’ announced in the command paper ‘Building on the Best: Choice, Responsiveness and Equity in the NHS’ (December 2003). Almost 90% of respondents to the Choice Consultation Survey stated that they needed more information in order to make decisions and choices about their treatment or care. More detail is available on the Department of Health website via the above link.
The establishment of NHS Direct as a Special Health Authority took place on the 1st April 2004. ‘Developing NHS Direct: A strategy for the next three years’ is available on the Department of Health website via the above link. |
Growth Hormone - BMJ & UK MICentral Today
This article and related endocrine published articles will be reviewed here shortly
30th April 2008
Printer friendly version - 16 April 2004
Use and abuse of growth hormone
A BMJ editorial giving an overview of the current uses of human growth hormone. The author covers the generally accepted uses, other proposed therapeutic uses with less supporting evidence, and the commoner non-therapeutic uses - or abuses - or the hormone. There are a number of accepted uses of growth hormone in both children and adults, most of which relate to states in which there is a deficiency or insufficiency: for these, there is generally good published evidence. A number of proposed therapeutic uses exploit the anabolic effects of growth hormone in , for example, severely catabolic patients - the evidence for these is limited. Finally, the author discusses abuses. Most obvious of these is use by athletes to gain unfair advantage over competitors, although there is no evidence that this works. Growth hormone is widely touted, especially via the internet, as reducing or reversing the effects of aging. There is little or no evidence of any significant functional benefit on the aging process, but clear evidence of potential harms: perhaps fortunately for the health of those using it, much of the product supplied via the internet neither contains active hormone nor increases levels in the body. The author also notes that it has been used to increase the height of children already of normal height, and suggests that this too could be considered as abuse.
BMJ 2004; 328: 907-8 16th April 2004
Competing interests: RLH has been a consultant to Eli Lilly and has received fees for speaking.
References
Raben MS. Treatment of a pituitary dwarf with human growth hormone. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1958;18: 901-3.[ISI]
Fine RN, Kohaut MEC, Brown MD, Perlman AJ. Growth after recombinant human growth hormone treatment in children with chronic renal failure: report of a multicenter randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study. J Pediatr 1994;124: 374-82.[ISI][Medline]
Kaplan SL, Underwood, LE, August, GP, Bell, JJ, Blethen, SL, Brown, DR, et al. Clinical studies with recombinant-DNA derived methionyl-human growth hormone in GH deficient children. Lancet 1986;i: 697-700.
Rennie MJ. Claims for the anabolic effects of growth hormone: a case of the emperor's new clothes? Br J Sports Med 2003;37: 100-5.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
Sönksen PH. Insulin, growth hormone and sport. J Endocrinol 2001;170: 13-25.[ISI][Medline]
Rudman D, Feller AG, Nagraj HS Gergans GA, Lalitha PY, Goldberg AF, et al. Effects of human GH in men over 60 years old. N Engl J Med 1990;323: 1-6.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
Marcus R, Butterfield G, Holloway L, Gilliland L, Baylink DJ, Hintz RL, et al. Effects of short term administration of recombinant human growth hormone to elderly people. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1990;70: 519-27.[Abstract]
Blackman MR, Sorkin J, Münzer T, Bellantoni M, Busby-Whitehead J, Stevens T, et al. Growth hormone and sex steroid administration in healthy aged women and men: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2002;288: 2282-92.[Abstract/Free Full Text] |
Peter Randle appointed Awareness Representative
 | Dorset Awareness Representative
Peter Randle CSci CEng CITP CMath CChem, has been appointed Dorset Awareness Representative with immediate effect.
The Pituitary Foundation (UK) based at Bristol, was awarded funding for an awareness programme over 3 years. During 2004 that awareness programme will provide information and contact to GP Health Centres to provide a better link for medics and patients suffering from Pituitary Illness and related illness.
As an initial start to providing contact for Dorset, this website is being created today. It is hoped this will provide information and contact to Dorset people and health professionals alike as well as maintaining the direct link to Bristol and other Advice Centres around the UK and eventually overseas.
Peter first suspected he had a Pituitary illness when he lived on Portland (1987 -) following his return from New York where he had been working for American Express, in their building next to the World Trade Centre - Twin Towers. However, It was not until 1993 that his Pituitary illness was confirmed and that was by Professor John Wass the current Medical Director of the Pituitary Foundation and Director of Education at the RCP. Prior to Peter's illness making him bed bound, he was Organist at St Andrew's Church (Avalanche Road, Portland) and Accompanist for the Portland Singers [cf "Highway" Presented by the late Harry Secombe - Channel 4 TV, 1989] as well as for a short time, Conductor of the Portland Youth Orchestra. From 1993 - 2003 he was living within the new London Dockland's by the Thames. Peter returned to Dorset during September 2003 although he has frequently visited, having lived in Dorchester and studied for A-levels at the former Hardyes School (1967-1970). Some Dorchester Area readers may remember he was Organist at Fordington Methodist Church;until he went to London University (1970) to study Chemistry and Mathematics for his BSc (Hons).
Do make contact should you wish. either as patient, Health Professional or possibly a volunteer. The website will take a few weeks to have the basic contact details but it is hoped this will provide a local place to visit when browsing other Community projects and also to provide a direct link and response from the National HQ at Bristol and their excellent team nation-wide.
Peter Randle CSci CEng CITP CMath CChem
Registered Director, Expert Witness & Teacher
Pituitary Foundation - Dorset Awareness Representative
Copyright © 2004 - 2008 Peter Randle
Email: awarenessindorset@pituitary.org.uk
Voice: 07050 26 28 50
Copyright © 2004 - 2008
The Pituitary Foundation,
PO Box 1944, Bristol, BS99 2UB
Tel/fax: 0845 450 0375 .
E-mail: helpline@pituitary.org.uk
Registered Charity No: 1058968.
Registered Company No: 3253584 |
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Open Email: The Health Science Library Partnerships Committee
Dear colleagues,
The Health Science Library Partnerships Committee of the (U.S.) Medical
Library Association's International Cooperation Section would like to
announce the launching of the group's Website -
http://www.ics.mlanet.org/hslp.htm. This Website is envisioned as a
resource to encourage and facilitate library partnerships between
institutions in developing and industrialized countries.
The Health Science Library Partnerships Committee (HSLP) has compiled a
collection of resources including current health library partnerships
databases, educational tools for librarians in partnerships, grant
information for international cooperation, sample templates for health
sciences library partnership training, tips on becoming a sister library,
and Web-based health information for developing and transitional
countries. We are optimistic that these resources will facilitate the
initiation of more partnerships.
The HSLP seeks to encourage and facilitate the formation of health science
library partnerships throughout the world. The Committee is comprised of
individuals interested in assisting libraries in developing countries to
bridge the health information gap between the North and the South. We work
in collaboration with the UK based Partnerships in Health Information -
http://omni.ac.uk/hosted/phi/.
If you are interested in participating in a health library partnership or
have additional questions or information, please contact Jie Li at
jli@jaguar1.usouthal.edu or any of the area coordinators listed on the
Committee's Website at www.ics.mlanet.org/hslp.htm.
Lenny Rhine
Health Science Center Libraries
University of Florida
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