A Rare Cause of Hypokalemia: Ectopic ACTH Syndrome

The most common cause of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-dependent Cushing’s syndrome is a benign ACTH-producing pituitary tumour or, less frequently, ectopic ACTH production from non-pituitary tumours. Ectopic occurs more commonly in men and usually presents after 40 years. It associated with small cell lung cancer. Although this severe hypercortisolemia, some findings syndrome, such as central obesity, may not be observed due to underlying malignant diseases. In these cases, rapid metabolic disruption, anorexia, myopathy, glucose intolerance, hypokalemic alkalosis, hyperpigmentation accompany the patients’ clinical condition. current case report, we aimed emphasize that should kept mind differential diagnosis, especially presence hypokalemia accompanying hypertension proximal muscle weakness, if patient also has progressive weight loss.