Acute pancreatitis and Cushing's disease

A 64-year-old woman with Cushing's disease died of acute necrotizing pancreatitis. This is the second case of this rare condition, in which acute necrotizing pancreatitis followed an ACTH-dependent hypercortisolism. The possibility that the tricyclic antidepressant drug, amitriptyline hydrochloride, induced the acute pancreatitis could not be ruled out; nevertheless, the present case may serve to add ACTH-dependent hypercortisolism to the possible causes of acute necrotizing pancreatitis.