Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0020505 (hyperphagia)
 6,116 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A 10-year-old uncastrated male Dalmatian dog was referred for gait abnormalities consisting of chronic progressive stiffness and rigidity. Other symptoms were polyphagia associated with weight gain, polyuria and polydipsia, excessive panting, and an inspiratory stridor. The owner had noticed progressive thickening of the skin and enlargement of the tongue over the last 3 years. Physical examination revealed thickening of the skin, redundant skin folds, and enlargement of the tongue. The only remarkable abnormalities found on routine laboratory examination were mild anaemia and an increased serum fructosamine concentration. Circulating concentrations of total thyroxine, free thyroxine, and cTSH, and the results of an ACTH stimulation test were all within reference ranges. The basal serum growth hormone (GH) concentration was markedly elevated (23microg/l) and did not decrease during a glucose tolerance test or after somatostatin administration. The serum insulin-like growth factor-1 concentration was also markedly elevated (1254microg/l). Basal serum insulin concentration was high (95mU/l) and insulin concentrations increased considerably after glucose loading, consistent with insulin resistance. Abdominal ultrasonography showed no abnormalities. Survey radiographs of the vertebral column showed severe spondylosis deformans extending from the cervical to the lumbosacral spine. CT scanning of the skull showed an enlarged pituitary gland with normal enhancement pattern. On post-mortem examination, the entire vertebral column appeared as a single and inflexible structure due to the presence of multiple fused osteophytes. The pituitary gland contained an acidophilic adenoma that immunostained positively for GH (and negatively for ACTH and alpha-MSH). In conclusion, this Dalmatian dog with acromegaly and insulin resistance represents the first case of GH hypersecretion proven to be due to a somatotroph adenoma.
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PMID:Acromegaly due to a somatroph adenoma in a dog. 1647 61

The concept of addiction is loaded with connotations and is often used for its political as much as its medical utility. The scientific case for 'food addiction' as a clinical phenotype currently rests on its association with generic diagnostic criteria for substance-related disorders being applied to everyday foods and eating-related problems. This has fused the concept of obesity with addiction regardless of whether it fits the definition. The hedonic, or reward, system can account for the ingestion of foods and drugs, confirming that they share neural substrates that differentiate liking and wanting. These are normal processes that are recruited for natural homeostatic behaviours and can explain the phenomenon of hedonic overeating as a consequence of human motivation pushed to extremes by an obesogenic environment. Food addiction constitutes a medicalization of common eating behaviours, taking on the properties of a disease. The use of this medical language has implications for the way in which society views overeating and obesity.
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PMID:Food addiction and obesity: unnecessary medicalization of hedonic overeating. 2854 63