[Paroxysmal ACTH secretion from an adrenal medullary tumour (author's transl)]

Abstract

A secondary Cushing's syndrome developed in a 38-year-old woman from an ACTH secreting phaeochromocytoma. Large amounts of ACTH were demonstrated in the tumour by radioimmunological tests. A remarkable feature was that clinical and biochemical signs of increased catecholamine secretion completely regressed with time and the adrenals were stimulated at intervals by the ectopic ACTH secretion, steroid excretion falling to normal in between.