Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Patients with Cushing Syndrome: Evaluation with Carotid Intima-Media Thickness and Ankle-Brachial Index

• Main Authors: Luigi Petramala, D'Elia Lorenzo, Gino Iannucci, Antonio Concistré, Laura Zinnamosca, Cristiano Marinelli, Giuseppe De Vincentis, Antonio Ciardi, Giorgio De Toma, Claudio Letizia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Academya Publishing Co. 2015-12-01
• Series: Endocrinology and Metabolism
• Subjects: Cushing syndrome; Subclinical atherosclerosis; Carotid intima-media thickness; Ankle brachial index
• Online Access: http://e-enm.org/Synapse/Data/PDFData/2008ENM/enm-30-488.pdf

BackgroundCushing syndrome (CS) has been described as a killing disease due its cardiovascular complications. In fact, chronic cortisol excess leads to a constellation of complications, including hypertension, hyperglycemia, adiposity, and thromboembolism. The main vascular alteration associated with CS is atherosclerosis.MethodsAim of this study was to analyze carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) and ankle-brachial index (ABI), two surrogate markers of subclinical atherosclerosis in a consecutive series of CS patients, compared to patients with essential hypertension (EH) and health subjects (HS).ResultsPatients with CS showed a significant increase (P<0.05) of cIMT (0.89±0.17 mm) compared to EH (0.81±0.16 mm) and HS (0.75±0.4 mm), with a high prevalence of plaque (23%; P<0.03). Moreover, CS patients showed a mean ABI values (1.07±0.02) significantly lower respect to HS (1.12±0.11; P<0.05), and a higher percentage (20%) of pathological values of ABI (≤0.9; P<0.03).ConclusionIn conclusion, we confirmed and extended the data of cIMT in CS, and showed that the ABI represent another surrogate marker of subclinical atherosclerosis in this disease.