View clinical trials related to Cushing's Disease.
Filter by:Background: Cushing s disease is caused by a pituitary gland tumor. Patients with Cushing s disease suffer obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, weakness, and hypertension. The cure is surgery to remove the pituitary tumor. Currently, MRI is the best way to find these tumors. But not all tumors can be seen with an MRI. Researchers hope giving the hormone CRH before a PET scan can help make these tumors more visible. Objective: To test whether giving CRH before a PET scan will help find pituitary gland tumors that might be causing Cushing s disease. Eligibility: People ages 8 and older with Cushing s disease that is caused by a pituitary gland tumor that cannot be reliably seen on MRI Design: Participants will be screened with their medical history, a physical exam, an MRI, and blood tests. Participants will have at least one hospital visit. During their time in the hospital, they will have a physical exam and a neurological exam. They will have a PET scan of the brain. A thin plastic tube will be inserted into an arm vein. A small amount of radioactive sugar and CRH will be injected through the tube. Participants will lie in a darkened room for about an hour and be asked to urinate. Then they will lie inside the scanner for about 40 minutes. After the scan, they will be asked to urinate every 2-3 hours for the rest of the day. Blood will be drawn through a needle in the arm. Participants will have surgery to remove their tumor within 3 months after the scan. Participants will then continue regular follow-up in the clinic.
Cushing's disease is a state of chronic endogenous glucocorticoid excess. Cushing's disease is responsible for increased morbidity and mortality. Recent studies have pinpointed the frequency of somatic sequelas and persistent alteration in quality of life despite the cure of the disease. More specifically, a few studies have described persistent psychopathology, maladaptive personality and cognitive impairments in patients with a history of Cushing's disease. Among these, hippocampal memory deficits have been found in the majority of studies, a finding that is consistent with the alterations described in hippocampal neurons during chronic exposure to glucocorticoids. However, the tools currently available to assess hippocampal-dependent memory are multiple, sometimes difficult to perform by clinicians and to analyze or may lack of diagnostic sensitivity. The investigators have recently developed an original tool, the virtual radial task in 3D, which has shown to be reliable to detect subtle alterations in hippocampal-dependent memory in several human diseases. The primary aim of the study is the evaluation of persistent cognitive impairments (hippocampal memory) in patients cured of Cushing's disease for at least one year using the virtual radial task in 3D and to compare it with that obtained with classical cognitive tests.