Skip to main content
PMC home page
British Medical Journal logoLink to British Medical Journal
. 1975 Dec 20;4(5998):678–680. doi: 10.1136/bmj.4.5998.678

The immunological hazard of Cushing's syndrome.

S Britton, M Thorén, H E Sjoberg
PMCID: PMC1675825  PMID: 1081900

Abstract

A 24-year-old woman was found to have cryptococcal meningitis and Cushing's syndrome due to an adrenal adenoma. Her meningitis was successfully arrested with fluorouracil. Treatment with metyrapone decreased her cortisol production and produced clinical remission of Cushing's syndrome. On admission her peripheral T lymphocytes were few and hyporeactive. When the overproduction of cortisol ceased the numbers of T lymphocytes and their reactivity returned to normal and she developed in-vitro lymphocyte responsiveness to the cryptococci.

Full text

PDF
678

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. APPLEBY J. I., GIBSON G., NORYMBERSKI J. K., STUBBS R. D. Indirect analysis of corticosteroids. I. The determination of 17-hydroxycorticosteroids. Biochem J. 1955 Jul;60(3):453–460. doi: 10.1042/bj0600453. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Anderson R. J., Schafer L. A., Olin D. B., Eickhoff T. C. Infectious risk factors in the immunosuppressed host. Am J Med. 1973 Apr;54(4):453–460. doi: 10.1016/0002-9343(73)90041-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Berson S. A., Yalow R. S. Radioimmunoassay of ACTH in plasma. J Clin Invest. 1968 Dec;47(12):2725–2751. doi: 10.1172/JCI105955. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bird A. G., Britton S. No evidence for decreased lymphocyte reactivity in Crohn's disease. Gastroenterology. 1974 Nov;67(5):926–932. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Blomgren H., Andersson B. Evidence for a small pool of immunocompetent cells in the mouse thymus. Exp Cell Res. 1969 Oct;57(2):185–192. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(69)90140-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. CRANNY R. L., KELLEY V. C. The interpretation of steroid half-life values. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1959 Jul;19(7):854–856. doi: 10.1210/jcem-19-7-854. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. DE MOOR P., OSINSKI P., DECKX R., STEENO O. The specificity of fluorometric corticoid determinations. Clin Chim Acta. 1962 Jul;7:475–480. doi: 10.1016/0009-8981(62)90087-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. ERNEST I. A FOUR-DAY CORTICOTROPHIN-SUPPRESSION TEST. STUDIES IN CUSHING'S SYNDROME AND IN NON CUSHING SUBJECTS WITH RELATED SYMPTOMS. Acta Endocrinol (Copenh) 1965 Jan;48:147–162. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Fauci A. S., Dale D. C. The effect of in vivo hydrocortisone on subpopulations of human lymphocytes. J Clin Invest. 1974 Jan;53(1):240–246. doi: 10.1172/JCI107544. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Gewirtz G., Schneider B., Krieger D. T., Yalow R. S. Big ACTH: conversion to biologically active ACTH by trypsin. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1974 Feb;38(2):227–230. doi: 10.1210/jcem-38-2-227. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Gewirtz G., Yalow R. S. Ectopic ACTH production in carcinoma of the lung. J Clin Invest. 1974 Apr;53(4):1022–1032. doi: 10.1172/JCI107639. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Jondal M., Holm G., Wigzell H. Surface markers on human T and B lymphocytes. I. A large population of lymphocytes forming nonimmune rosettes with sheep red blood cells. J Exp Med. 1972 Aug 1;136(2):207–215. doi: 10.1084/jem.136.2.207. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. LIDDLE G. W. Tests of pituitary-adrenal suppressibility in the diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1960 Dec;20:1539–1560. doi: 10.1210/jcem-20-12-1539. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. NUGENT C. A., NICHOLS T., TYLER F. H. DIAGNOSIS OF CUSHING'S SYNDROME; SINGLE DOSE DEXAMETHASONE SUPPRESSION TEST. Arch Intern Med. 1965 Aug;116:172–176. doi: 10.1001/archinte.1965.03870020012006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Nilsson B. S. The response of lymphocytes from tuberculin-positive or negative humans to various doses of PPD-tuberculin in vitro. Cell Immunol. 1972 Mar;3(3):493–500. doi: 10.1016/0008-8749(72)90254-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Solberg G. O. Enhanced susceptibility to infection. A new method for the evaluation of neutrophil granulocyte functions. Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand B Microbiol Immunol. 1972;80(1):10–18. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Yalow R. S., Berson S. A. Characteristics of "big ACTH" in human plasma and pituitary extracts. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1973 Mar;36(3):415–423. doi: 10.1210/jcem-36-3-415. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Yu D. T., Clements P. J., Paulus H. E., Peter J. B., Levy J., Barnett E. V. Human lymphocyte subpopulations. Effect of corticosteroids. J Clin Invest. 1974 Feb;53(2):565–571. doi: 10.1172/JCI107591. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Medical Journal are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES