Effects of amino-glutethimide on adrenal function in man.

Abstract

ABSTRACT The effects of amino-glutethimide on adrenocortical function have been studied in 24 subjects, including 10 patients with Cushing's syndrome, 3 with primary aldosteronism and 1 with secondary hyperaldosteronism. Aminoglutethimide inhibited adrenal secretion of both cortisol and aldosterone. Inhibition of cortisol secretion was most clearly demonstrable in a patient with Cushing's syndrome caused by autonomous steroid secretion from an adrenal adenoma. In normal subjects, administration of large doses of amino-glutethimide was accompanied by consistent increases in plasma ACTH, and it is likely that these “compensatory” increases in ACTH were responsible for maintaining near-normal cortisol secretion rates and plasma 17-hydroxycorticosteroid (17-OHCS) concentrations in these subjects. Decreases in cortisol secretion occurred in 7 of 9 patients with Cushing's disease given amino-glutethimide, and this was of modest therapeutic value in 4 of these patients treated for several months. The most consis...