To observe the influence of thyroid hormone therapy on hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a group of 14 athyreotic women due to thyroid cancer treatment were studied before and after thyroid suppression therapy with thyroxine (T4). Changes in plasma adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and cortisol levels in response to human corticotropin-releasing hormone (hCRH; 100µg, i.v.) were estimated under...

1. Biller BM, Grossman AB, Stewart PM, Melmed S, Bertagna X, Bertherat J, et al. Treatment of adrenocorticotropin-dependent Cushing’s syndrome: a consensus statement. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2008;93:2454–62. 2. Yanovski JA, Cutler GB Jr, Chrousos GP, Nieman LK. Corticotropin-releasing hormone stimulation following low-dose dexamethasone administration: a new test to distinguish Cushing’s syndro...

The adipocyte-derived hormone adiponectin acts at two seven-transmembrane domain receptors, adiponectin receptor 1 and adiponectin receptor 2, present in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus to regulate neuronal excitability and endocrine function. Adiponectin depolarizes rat parvocellular preautonomic neurons that secrete either thyrotropin releasing hormone or oxytocin and parvocel...

A 22-year-old black woman presented with symptoms suggestive of Cushing's syndrome three years after chemotherapy for a presumed teratoma with cervical lymphadenopathy. Initially, the absence of clinical signs and the demonstration of two normal 24 h urinary free cortisols appeared to exclude the diagnosis, but an ectopic adrenocorticotropin-producing thymic carcinoid was subsequently removed s...