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SELECTIVE BILATERAL AND SIMULTANEOUS CATHETERIZATION OF THE INFERIOR PETROSAL SINUS: CRF STIMULATES PROLACTIN SECRETION FROM ACTH‐PRODUCING MICROADENOMAS IN CUSHING'S DISEASE
Author(s) -
SCHULTE H. M.,
ALLOLIO B.,
GUNTHER R. W.,
BENKER G.,
WINKELMANN W.,
OHNHAUS E. E.,
REINWEIN D.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
clinical endocrinology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1365-2265
pISSN - 0300-0664
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2265.1988.tb01215.x
Subject(s) - medicine , endocrinology , inferior petrosal sinus , prolactin , cushing's disease , anterior pituitary , adrenocorticotropic hormone , cushing syndrome , hormone , corticotropic cell , pituitary gland , disease , cavernous sinus , surgery
SUMMARY Bilateral, selective and simultaneous catheterization of the inferior petrosal sinus with measurements of ACTH after stimulation with ovine corticotrophin‐releasing factor (CRF) is now frequently used to establish the differential diagnosis in patients with Cushing's disease and to determine the side of the microadenoma in the pituitary. To investigate whether CRF has any effect on other pituitary hormones, we also determined prolactin (PRL) concentrations in the samples obtained during this procedure. Fourteen patients under evaluation for Cushing's syndrome and one patient with a hormonally inactive pituitary tumour were catheterized. Baseline PRL levels in the peripheral veins were within the normal range before and after CRF in all patients (3 ‐7‐16‐0 ng/ml). In 10 patients ACTH‐ and PRL concentrations lateralized to one side of the pituitary and could both be stimulated by CRF. The gradient of PRL between inferior petrosal sinus and periphery ranged from 7 to 147 ng/ml after CRF. There was no correlation between ACTH and prolactin increase in response to CRF. In three patients with no ACTH‐gradient but a positive response to CRF, no tumours could be found during transsphenoidal surgery; they had no PRL‐gradient and showed no PRL response to CRF. One patient with the ectopic ACTH syndrome had no ACTH‐ and no PRL response to CRF. The patient with the inactive pituitary tumour showed a normal ACTH‐, but no PRL response to CRF. These data demonstrate for the first time that in normo‐prolactinaemic patients with Cushing's disease, in contrast to patients bearing no microadenoma, PRL is secreted in response to CRF. This constant feature in all patients with pituitary Cushing's disease suggests that in the source of prolactin is the microadenoma and might prove useful clinically in interpreting equivocal ACTH‐gradients during this procedure.