Guide to treating endocrine and metabolic emergencies released at ICE/ENDO 2014

Endocrine Society annual meeting symposium to highlight imprint's first original book

The Endocrine Society's publishing imprint Endocrine Press released its first original title, Endocrine and Metabolic Medical Emergencies, today during the Society's annual meeting, ICE/ENDO 2014.

The book advises clinicians on treating acute medical and critically ill patients who experience endocrine and metabolic emergencies such as dangerously low blood sugar or excessive thyroid hormone levels. As hormone health conditions such as diabetes, osteoporosis and thyroid disorders become more commonplace, hospitals are seeing more patients who need emergency assessment and treatment for related complications.

"A patient entering the emergency room or ICU may have a complex constellation of health problems, including endocrine conditions," said the book's editor, Glenn Matfin, MSc (Oxon), MB ChB, FACE, FACP, FRCP, a consultant physician in the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS). "Clinicians need practical resources to ensure their patients receive the best possible care, and that is what this book delivers."

Dr. Matfin previously was Medical Director of the International Diabetes Center and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN. Prior to this, he was a Senior Physician and Director of the Inpatient Hyperglycemia program at the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.

Nearly 100 noted endocrinologists contributed content to the book, including sections on diabetes and other glucose disorders, thyroid conditions, bone diseases and obesity. J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, the Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and the Dean of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA, wrote the foreword.

Dr. Matfin will lead a symposium featuring three of the book's contributors during ICE/ENDO 2014 at McCormick Place. The event will be held at 5 p.m. June 23. Speakers will include:

• -Henry B. Burch, MD, of Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, MD, will discuss thyroid storm, which can be a potentially life-threatening complication for people with severe thyrotoxicosis, or an excess of thyroid hormone levels.

  -Ashley B. Grossman, MD, FRCP, of the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at Churchill Hospital in Oxford, United Kingdom, will speak about emergency treatment for florid Cushing's syndrome, a condition where a person has excessive levels of glucocorticoids - hormones associated with the stress response - in their blood for a long time period.

  -Joseph G. Verbalis, MD, of Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., will address the treatment of symptomatic hyponatremia, which occurs when the sodium level in the blood drops too low, either acutely or chronically.

The contributors will sign copies of the book following the symposium.

Source: The Endocrine Society