PL EN
RESEARCH PAPER
Cushing’s disease: similarities and differences in hormonal profile of pituitary micro- and macroadenomas
 
More details
Hide details
1
SPZOZ Garnizonowa Przychodnia Lekarska w Nowym Dworze Mazowieckim; dyrektor: Marek Malczewski
 
2
Klinika Gastroenterologii, Endokrynologii i Chorób Wewnętrznych CSK MON WIM; kierownik: dr hab. n. med. Przemysław Witek
 
3
Zakład Epidemiologii i Biostatystyki Instytutu Matki i Dziecka w Warszawie; dyrektor: dr n. med. Tomasz Maciejewski
 
 
Submission date: 2018-11-15
 
 
Publication date: 2019-01-29
 
 
LW 2019;97(2):113-117
 
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Cushing’s disease is a rare but extremely dangerous endocrinopathy caused by corticotroph pituitary adenomas, the size of which in most cases does not exceed 1 cm. The aim of the study was to show clinical and hormonal differences of corticotroph macroadenomas as a rare cause of ACTH‑dependent hypercortisolemia. A total of 36 patients with Cushing’s disease were analyzed (30 females and 6 males, 36.3 years ±12.9). This group included 6 macroadenomas (17%) and 30 microadenomas (83%). There were significant differences in plasma corticotropin (ACTH) concentrations between macro- and microgastrates (178.3 ±69.3 pg/ml and 84.2 ±37.6 pg/ml, respectively, p =0.005), and between the ACTH/cortisol ratio (7.35 ±4.65 and 3.6 ±2.1, respectively, p =0.044) and ACTH/DHEAS (92.2 ±50.7 and 41.7 ±44.4, respectively, p =0.013). However, there were no significant differences between the absolute serum concentrations of cortisol and DHEAS, or changes in cortisol concentrations in the high‑dose dexamethasone test. On the basis of the results, there were confirmed differences in the hormonal profile between macro- and corticotroph microadenomas, however, the cause of the lower adrenal cortex reactivity to ACTH stimulation in the case of corticotroph macroadenomas requires further investigation.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
No conflicts of interest were declared.
eISSN:1509-5754
ISSN:0024-0745
Journals System - logo
Scroll to top