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Pathophysiology of Cushing's Disease

Cushing's syndrome is caused by excessive cortisol production. Pituitary corticotrope adenomas account for 70% of endogenous Cushing's syndrome cases and result in unrestrained ACTH secretion. These adenomas can be microadenomas or macroadenomas. Typical features of chronic cortisol excess include central obesity, thin skin, easy bruising, hypertension, and glucose intolerance. Diagnosing Cushing's syndrome involves distinguishing pathological cortisol excess from normal variations and determining the underlying cause, which could be a pituitary or ectopic ACTH-producing tumor.

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9 views3 pages

Pathophysiology of Cushing's Disease

Cushing's syndrome is caused by excessive cortisol production. Pituitary corticotrope adenomas account for 70% of endogenous Cushing's syndrome cases and result in unrestrained ACTH secretion. These adenomas can be microadenomas or macroadenomas. Typical features of chronic cortisol excess include central obesity, thin skin, easy bruising, hypertension, and glucose intolerance. Diagnosing Cushing's syndrome involves distinguishing pathological cortisol excess from normal variations and determining the underlying cause, which could be a pituitary or ectopic ACTH-producing tumor.

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CUSHINGS SYNDROME (ACTH-PRODUCING ADENOMA)

(See also Chap. 406)


Etiology and Prevalence Pituitary corticotrope adenomas account
for 70% of patients with endogenous causes of Cushings syndrome.
However, it should be emphasized that iatrogenic hypercortisolism is
the most common cause of cushingoid features. Ectopic tumor ACTH
production, cortisol-producing adrenal adenomas, adrenal carcinoma,
and adrenal hyperplasia account for the other causes; rarely, ectopic
tumor CRH production is encountered.
ACTH-producing adenomas account for about 1015% of all
pituitary tumors. Because the clinical features of Cushings syndrome
often lead to early diagnosis, most ACTH-producing pituitary tumors
are relatively small microadenomas. However, macroadenomas also
are seen and some ACTH-expressing adenomas are clinically silent.
Cushings disease is 510 times more common in women than in men.
These pituitary adenomas exhibit unrestrained ACTH secretion, with
resultant hypercortisolemia. However, they retain partial suppressibility
in the presence of high doses of administered glucocorticoids,
providing the basis for dynamic testing to distinguish pituitary from
nonpituitary causes of Cushings syndrome.

Presentation and Diagnosis The diagnosis of Cushings syndrome


presents
two great challenges: (1) to distinguish patients with pathologic
cortisol excess from those with physiologic or other disturbances of
cortisol production and (2) to determine the etiology of pathologic
cortisol excess.
Typical features of chronic cortisol excess include thin skin, central
obesity, hypertension, plethoric moon facies, purple striae and
easy bruisability, glucose intolerance or diabetes mellitus, gonadal
dysfunction, osteoporosis, proximal muscle weakness, signs of
hyperandrogenism
(acne, hirsutism), and psychological disturbances (depression,
mania, and psychoses) (Table 403-7). Hematopoietic features of
hypercortisolism include leukocytosis, lymphopenia, and eosinopenia.
Immune suppression includes delayed hypersensitivity and infection
propensity. These protean yet commonly encountered manifestations of
hypercortisolism make it challenging to decide which patients mandate
formal laboratory evaluation. Certain features make pathologic causes
of hypercortisolism more likely; they include characteristic central
redistribution
of fat, thin skin with striae and bruising, and proximal muscle
weakness. In children and young females, early osteoporosis may be
particularly
prominent. The primary cause of death is cardiovascular disease,
but life-threatening infections and risk of suicide are also increased.
Rapid development of features of hypercortisolism associated with
skin hyperpigmentation and severe myopathy suggests an ectopic
tumor source of ACTH. Hypertension, hypokalemic alkalosis, glucose
intolerance, and edema are also more pronounced in these patients.
Serum potassium levels <3.3 mmol/L are evident in ~70% of patients
with ectopic ACTH secretion but are seen in <10% of patients with
pituitary-dependent Cushings syndrome.

Laboratory Investigation The diagnosis of Cushings syndrome is


based on laboratory documentation of endogenous hypercortisolism.
Measurement of 24-h urine free cortisol (UFC) is a precise and costeffective
screening test. Alternatively, the failure to suppress plasma
cortisol after an overnight 1-mg dexamethasone suppression test can

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