Cushing's disease: Evaluation of mineralocorticoid-induced hypertension

Abstract

A patient (32-year-old female) with Cushing's syndrome due to pituitary adenoma and hypertension with hypokalemia is reviewed. Endocrinological studies demonstrated low plasma renin activity, low plasma aldosterone concentration and high plasma deoxycorticosterone concentration. Blood pressure response to exogenous angiotensin II was enhanced. After the withdrawal of cortisol replacement following surgery, her abnormal endocrinological findings, hypertension and serum potassium level returned to normal and her blood pressure response to exogenous angiotensin II was reduced. These results suggest that in this case deoxycorticosterone might have contributed to the development and maintenance of her hypertension accompanied with hypokalemia. (Internal Medicine 32: 784–788, 1993). © 1993, The Japanese Society of Internal Medicine. All rights reserved.