The proximate cause of the clinical manifestations of Cushing'ssyndrome obesity, facial plethora, hirsutism, hypertension,muscle weakness, lethargy, and depression is excesscortisol secretion. Few of these clinical manifestations arespecific to the syndrome, but the presence of several of themshould lead clinicians to suspect it (and when many are present,the changes may be dramatic). The next steps are to confirmthe presence of cortisol excess and then to determine its cause.
The predominant causes of Cushing's syndrome are excess corticotropinsecretion, whether from a pituitary tumor (Cushing's disease)or a nonendocrine tumor, and adrenal tumors, . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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