Top endocrinology award for Dundee researchers

Published On Fri 4 Apr 2014 by Grant Hill

Academics from the University of Dundee have won an international award in recognition of a paper published in a respected medical journal.

Professor Graham Leese, Professor Peter Donnan and Dr Ning Yu were judged to have submitted the best paper published in the journal Clinical Endocrinology last year at the annual Societies for Endocrinology meeting in Liverpool.

Their research centred on novel predictors for poor outcomes in primary hyperparathyroidism - a condition characterised by excess calcium due to glandular overactivity that affects up to 1 per cent of the population.

Where the serum calcium concentration is high, patients receive surgery to remove one of the four parathyroid glands in the neck. When the calcium concentration is raised but not excessively patients are not recommended surgery but the Dundee team have shown that these patients are more likely to experience heart disease and other health problems, with their paper identifying the key factors that predict this risk.

“This is a great honour for us and for the University, and demonstrates the importance of research being undertaken here,” said Professor Leese. “We have shown that these patients are at risk of some problems, such as heart disease, but what is needed now is a randomised controlled trial of surgery vs no surgery in patients with the condition but with lower serum calcium concentrations to investigate the best treatment pathway.”

Researchers from Belgium, Italy and the US also received awards at the Societies for Endocrinology meeting and were invited to present their papers to delegates.

The Dundee paper is one publication in a series looking at the epidemiology of parathyroid disease funded by the Chief Scientist Office.

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