After years of clinical suspicion, large studies confirm elevated risk across multiple cancers From Lewis S Blevins Jr., MD – Professor of Neurological Surgery, Medical Director of the California Center for Pituitary Disorders at UCSF
Dr. Blevins Corner
Medical comments from Dr. Lewis Blevins MD. Director Center for Pituitary Disorders at University California San Francisco
Tumors that mimic pituitary adenomas because of their location
June 26, 2015
From Lewis S. Blevins, Jr. MD – This patient presented with headaches and vision loss. The MRI was said to show a pituitary adenoma. It is, however, clear that this is a tuberculum sellae meningioma.
Auto-immune and inflammatory disorders in Cushing’s syndrome
June 23, 2015
From Lewis S Blevins Jr, MD – I’ve seen a few instances over my career of auto-immune and inflammatory disorders flaring or becoming more apparent after someone has entered remission for Cushing’s syndrome. In each
Doctors, patients, research and teaching
May 20, 2015
From Lewis S Blevins, Jr MD – A “triple threat” used to be a term to describe the consummate academic physician who, second to none, possessed excellent teaching skills, demonstrated a successful productive research program,
“Can’t you just look at my labs?”
April 15, 2015
An Op Ed form Lewis S Blevins, Jr. M.D. – on the review of laboratory results….good medicine? I couldn’t tell you the number of times each year I hear that question posed by patients who
How does vasopressin work?
April 7, 2015
From Lewis S. Blevins, Jr. MD – Vasopressin acts on the kidney to reabsorb water from the urine to restore plasma osmolarity to normal to prevent dehydration. Simple enough. Right? Hold on a minute! Our
Thirsty? For water? How about knowledge?
April 7, 2015
From Lewis S. Blevins, Jr. MD – Ever wondered why your sense of thirst and the control of your diabetes insipidus reflected by the degree of polyuria might seem disconnected? Well, it’s because they are!
Diabetes Insipidus: Our survey report is in!
March 30, 2015
From Lewis S Blevins, Jr MD – One hundred ninety-eight persons completed our survey on diabetes insipidus. Approximately two-thirds of respondents reside in the United States whereas 14% live in Great Britain, 7% live in
How do somatostatin analogs work?
March 16, 2015
From Lewis S. Blevins, Jr. MD – Somatostatin analogs are a class of drugs that are chemically modified forms of native somatostatin. They are meant to act like somatostatin. Somatostatin is produced in our bodies,
An overview of anterior hypopituitarism.
March 9, 2015
From Lewis S. Blevins, Jr. MD – I define hypopituitarism as the partial or complete deficiency of one or more anterior pituitary hormones. Panhypopituitarism is, of course, deficiency of all of the anterior pituitary
A featured essay by Dr. Blevins on the Art of Medicine in this month’s issue of Operative Neurosurgery
March 2, 2015
The March 15th issue of Operative Neurosurgery features an article by Dr Lewis Blevins on the Art of Medicine. You can go to the publication’s website to read the article or download a PDF here. In
The complexities of diagnosing pituitary disorders
February 22, 2015
From Lewis S Blevins, Jr. MD – Most of us know of the complexity of the hypothalamic-pituitary and target gland systems in health and disease. Further, the target gland hormones are carried in the blood
About the expansion of knowledge
February 5, 2015
From Lewis S. Blevins, Jr, MD – This is an iPhone photo, through my telescope, of Jupiter and the four Galilean moons. Unfortunately, the exposure did not illustrate the beautiful banding of the planet. The