Diagnosis of cure in Cushing's syndrome: lessons from long-term follow-up

Sleep disruption in patients with active and treated endogenous Cushing's syndrome

CONTEXT

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is a critical regulator of circadian rhythm in humans. Impaired sleep adversely affects metabolic, emotional, and cognitive health.

OBJECTIVE

To characterize sleep disturbances in patients with active and treated Cushing's syndrome (CS), and identify factors associated with impaired sleep in treated patients.

DESIGN

Single-center cross-sectional study.

METHODS

Patients with pituitary or adrenal CS enrolled in an observational study completed Nottingham Health Profile (NHP), CushingQoL, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression assessments. Cross-sectional analysis was conducted including patients with active and treated disease.

RESULTS

113 (94 female) patients with CS were included, 104 pituitary and 9 adrenal, with mean age at diagnosis of 43.9 ± 13.4 years. Mean and maximum duration of follow up was 5.1 and 23 years. Mean NHP sleep score was lower (i.e., improved) in patients with treated vs. active disease (29.6 ± 30.2 vs. 51.9 ± 30.9, p = 0.0005), as was CushingQoL sleep score (p = 0.015), but 41.5% of patients with treated disease stated they often or always had trouble sleeping. The proportion of treated vs. active patients taking medication for sleep, mood, or pain was not different. Neither NHP nor CushingQoL pain scores were lower in treated vs. active patients (p = 0.39 and 0.53). In patients with treated CS, anxiety and depression correlated with worse sleep scores.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with treated CS report improved sleep quality compared to those with active disease, but almost half of treated patients still report sleep challenges. The need for sleep medications, reported by one third of patients, was not different after CS treatment. Ongoing mood disturbances may play a role in persistent sleep disruption. Further work should focus on determinants of sleep impairments in treated CS patients.

Illustration of patient-reported outcome challenges and solutions in rare diseases: a systematic review in Cushing's syndrome

Rare diseases are often not fully understood and efforts put in investigating it from patient perspective are usually met with challenges. We performed a systematic literature review (SLR) for the last 20 years in Cushing's Syndrome (CS) to illustrate Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO) challenges, and show what solutions were found.PROs and other Clinical Outcome Assessment (COA) used with CS patients were reviewed in 36 studies. Two CS-specific Health Related Quality of Life (HRQL) measures were identified (i.e., CushingQoL, Tuebingen CD-25), as well as depression and neurocognitive measures. For CS-specific HRQL measures, the CushingQoL was the most widely used measure due in part to being the first CS-specific HRQL measure developed. With algorithms mapping the CushingQoL to both the SF-6D and EQ-5D, the CushingQoL could be used to facilitate economic modelling studies in the absence of a generic HRQL measure. While the CushingQoL offers only the global scale and two subscales compared to the six subscales of the Tuebingen CD-25, there is not yet adequate statistical validation data available for the Tuebingen CD-25 to suggest it can withstand the scrutiny of review by multiple stakeholders. Results of this review indicate that the inclusion of a measure of depressive symptoms, such as the BDI-II or similar measure, would be reasonable to include given the high level of comorbidity of depression among CS patients. A brief neurocognitive performance outcome, such as Trail Making tasks A and D or Digit Symbol, could help inform the interpretation of HRQL results. Neurocognitive differences may be an unassessed mediator of HRQL outcomes, partly accounting for the persistence of depressive symptoms and HRQL deficits despite treatment. Results suggest that HRQL improvements are possible within this population. These results are limited by small sample sizes and pre/post study design.CS showcases the difficulties encountered in measuring PROs in rare diseases. A solution for this specific case was developed in the form of dedicated PRO instruments, the CushingQOL and the Tuebingen-25. However, some aspects of CS may not be fully answered or not yet validated (e.g., depressive and cognitive symptoms). Further research needs to be done to address them.

Metformin reduces insulin resistance and the tendency toward hyperglycaemia and dyslipidaemia in dogs with hyperadrenocorticism

Hypercortisolism induces a state of insulin resistance that can occur concurrently with fasting hyperglycaemia, dyslipidaemia and diabetes mellitus. Metformin reduces hepatic glucose production and insulin resistance of the skeletal muscle and adipose tissue. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of metformin on the control of metabolic disorders of dogs with hyperadrenocorticism (HAC). Twenty-three dogs with HAC were randomly divided into two groups, consisting of a control group and a metformin group (10 mg metformin/kg/12 h). Both groups received the same treatment for HAC. At baseline and 3 months, blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides and insulin concentrations, in addition to urinary cortisol:creatinine ratio, Homeostatic Model Assessment (HOMA) for insulin sensitivity and β-cell function were measured. Dogs treated with metformin showed significantly reduced glycaemia, cholesterolaemia and triglyceridaemia. They also presented reduced hyperinsulinism and insulin resistance, as well as improved pancreatic β-cell function. The implementation of metformin as an adjuvant therapy is effective for the normalisation of metabolic disorders of dogs with HAC.

Treatment of Cushing's Syndrome: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline

OBJECTIVE

The objective is to formulate clinical practice guidelines for treating Cushing's syndrome.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants include an Endocrine Society-appointed Task Force of experts, a methodologist, and a medical writer. The European Society for Endocrinology co-sponsored the guideline.

EVIDENCE

The Task Force used the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation system to describe the strength of recommendations and the quality of evidence. The Task Force commissioned three systematic reviews and used the best available evidence from other published systematic reviews and individual studies.

CONSENSUS PROCESS

The Task Force achieved consensus through one group meeting, several conference calls, and numerous e-mail communications. Committees and members of The Endocrine Society and the European Society of Endocrinology reviewed and commented on preliminary drafts of these guidelines.

CONCLUSIONS

Treatment of Cushing's syndrome is essential to reduce mortality and associated comorbidities. Effective treatment includes the normalization of cortisol levels or action. It also includes the normalization of comorbidities via directly treating the cause of Cushing's syndrome and by adjunctive treatments (eg, antihypertensives). Surgical resection of the causal lesion(s) is generally the first-line approach. The choice of second-line treatments, including medication, bilateral adrenalectomy, and radiation therapy (for corticotrope tumors), must be individualized to each patient.

Persistent Comorbidities in Cushing’s Syndrome after Endocrine Cure

It was assumed that resolution of hypercortisolism in Cushing syndrome (CS) was followed by normalization of morbidity; however, in the last decade evidence is accumulating that patients with cured CS still have increased morbidity and mortality after the biochemical control of hypercortisolism. Patients with CS have an increased cardiovascular and metabolic risk and persistent accumulation of central fat, with an unfavorable adipokine profile, not only during the active phase of the disease but also long after biochemical remission. Clinical management should be particularly careful in identifying global cardiovascular risk, as a primary goal during the followup of these patients, aimed at improving global vascular morbidity. Moreover bone mass is reduced not only due to the endogenous hypercortisolism but also due to duration and dose of exogenous glucocorticoid (GC) replacement therapy after surgery. Thus, therapy in operated patients with inhibition of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis should be reduced to the lowest dose and duration possible. Specific treatments should be considered in patients with decreased bone mass, aimed at reducing the increased fracture incidence. Finally, cognitive and health related quality of life impairments, described in active disease, are still abnormal after endocrine cure. Thus, residual morbidity persists in cured CS, suggesting irreversibility of GC-induced phenomena, typical of chronic hypercortisolism.

Persistence of Cushing's disease symptoms and comorbidities after surgical cure: a long-term, integral evaluation

OBJECTIVES

Successful surgery does not always resolve all the clinical consequences of hypercortisolism in patients with Cushing's disease (CD). Our purpose was to integrally evaluate a group of CD patients cured by pituitary surgery and look for the persistence of CD symptoms, signs, and comorbidities.

METHODS

We performed clinical and biochemical evaluations of 29 CD patients (2 males) cured by pituitary surgery. All patients underwent early (median 12 months) and late (median 58 months) postoperative evaluations. We sought information regarding hypercortisolism-related symptoms and signs, as well as metabolic, cardiovascular, reproductive, and psychologic comorbidities.

RESULTS

The prevalence of obesity dropped from 72.4% at diagnosis to 31% at early evaluation but increased again to 44.8% at the late evaluation. Diabetes was present in 14 patients (48.3%) at diagnosis and persisted in 9 at the late evaluation. Hypertriglyceridemia was present in 58.6% and 55.1% of patients at diagnosis and at the late follow-up, respectively. The prevalence of hypercholesterolemia was 79.3% at diagnosis, decreased to 55.1% at the early evaluation, and increased to 65.5% at the late evaluation. Menstrual abnormalities were originally present in 15 of 20 women, and 8 of the 15 had recovered normal periods when seen at the last evaluation. Among the 24 patients with depression at diagnosis, 11 and 6 still exhibited mood abnormalities at the early and late evaluations, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

In a variable proportion of patients, the cardiovascular, metabolic, and emotional comorbidities of CD persist after long-term remission, irrespective of the initial degree of hypercortisolism.

Quality of life and other outcomes in children treated for Cushing syndrome

CONTEXT

Cushing syndrome (CS) in children is associated with residual impairment in measures of health-related quality of life, even after successful resolution of hypercortisolemia, highlighting the need for early identification of morbidities and improvements in long-term management of these patients.

EVIDENCE ACQUISITION AND SYNTHESIS

A PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science search of articles from 1900 onward identified available studies related to quality of life and complications of pediatric CS as well as important historical articles. This review summarizes studies through November 2012 and highlights recent developments.

CONCLUSIONS

A review of the literature identifies significant morbidities associated with CS of pediatric onset, which must not be treated in isolation. CS affects children and adolescents in many ways that are different than adults. Post-treatment challenges for the child or adolescent treated for CS include: optimize growth and pubertal development, normalize body composition, and promote psychological health and cognitive maturation. All these factors impact health-related quality of life, which is an important outcome measure to assess the burden of disease as well as the effect of treatment. Future research efforts are needed to improve management of the physical, psychological, and emotional aspects of this disease in order to diminish the residual impairments experienced by the pediatric CS patient population.

[Lipodystrophies]

Human lipodystrophies represent a group of diseases characterized by altered body fat amount and/or repartition. Most forms of lipodystrophies are associated with metabolic alterations such as insulin resistance, diabetes and dyslipemia, leading to diabetic complications, increased cardiovascular risk or liver steatosis. Lipodystrophies can be classified as genetic or acquired, generalized or partial. Genetic forms such as Berardinelli-Seip syndrome or partial familial lipodystrophies are uncommon and acquired forms are much more frequent. Beside the rare Lawrence or Barraquer-Simons syndromes, the main forms of acquired lipodystrophies are those observed in HIV-infected people treated with antiretroviral therapies or in people exposed to an endogenous or an exogenous hypercortisolism. The treatment of lipodystrophies is difficult. Lifestyle modifications (e.g., specific diet, physical training) may be helpful but are usually insufficient. Associated metabolic disorders should be treated as soon as possible with insulin sensitizers, insulin and lipid lowering drugs. New therapies such as leptin have been proven to be helpful in some genetic or acquired forms of lipodystrophy.

Pros and cons of screening for occult Cushing syndrome

Systematic screening studies performed mainly in patients with diabetes mellitus have revealed an unexpectedly high prevalence of occult Cushing syndrome. Such studies may provide a rationale for systematically screening obese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. However, a screening strategy is only justified if it is supported by enough evidence of its efficacy and if the benefits will outweigh drawbacks. To date, the natural history of occult Cushing syndrome and its possible effect on long-term morbidity are unknown. The clinical spectrum of occult Cushing syndrome and its relatively low prevalence may potentially negatively affect the performance of endocrine tests used to diagnose overt Cushing syndrome and generate false positives. Whether the cure of occult Cushing syndrome favorably influences clinical outcomes and is more beneficial than treatment of diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular risk factors with currently available pharmacological tools remains to be demonstrated. Last, the acceptability of a screening program by professionals and the health-care system in terms of workload and costs is highly questionable. Thus, an assessment of the indications for and against screening for occult Cushing syndrome on the basis of currently available data suggests that, to date, the cons surpass the pros.