Muscle lesions in hypercorticism

In recent years, there have been many reports in the literature about muscle lesions caused by hypercorticism of both endogenous and exogenous origin. For the first time, muscular disorders in patients with basophilic pituitary adenoma were described in 1932 [15]. Further observations [1a, b, 4, 6, 7, 19, 25] It allowed us to characterize the features of muscular pathology in Itsenko-Cushing's disease and Cushing's syndrome, expressed by muscle weakness mainly of the proximal parts of the legs and pelvic girdle and to a lesser extent of the proximal parts of the arms and shoulder girdle. The muscles of the shins, interosseous muscles of the hands and feet are less often affected. Muscle atrophy does not always reach a significant degree, moreover, it is often masked by excessive fat deposition. Such patients have difficulty climbing stairs, getting out of bed, lifting their arms above the horizontal level. Muscle weakness is combined with a decrease in tendon reflexes until they disappear with severe atrophy. The muscles of the anterior abdominal wall are often affected, which can partially explain the sagging of the abdomen in patients [5].