BACKGROUND Measurement of the plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) level has been recommended as the first diagnostic test for differentiating between ACTH-independent Cushing syndrome (CS) and ACTH-dependent CS. When plasma ACTH values are inconclusive, a differential diagnosis of CS can be made based upon measurement of the serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) level and results ...

OBJECTIVE Endogenous Cushing syndrome in children is a rare disorder that is most frequently caused by pituitary or adrenocortical tumors. Diagnostic criteria have generally been derived from studies of adult patients despite significant differences in both the physiology of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the epidemiology of Cushing syndrome in childhood. The purpose of this study ...

The relationship among obesity, impaired glucose tolerance or diabetes, hypertension, and gonadal dysfunction was initially recognized in two clinical syndromes described early in the 20th century. In 1932, Harvey Cushing reported these findings as well as other features of endogenous hypercortisolism in patients with small basophilic pituitary adenomas (1). A decade earlier, two French physici...