Relapse of asthma after surgical treatment of Cushing's syndrome

Endogenous overproduction of glucocorticoids may mask the clinical course of some inflammatory/ autoimmune disorders. In the present paper, we report a man with a history of asthma, which spontaneously remitted after 20 years of duration. Several years later, he was diagnosed with Cushing's syndrome of pituitary origin and underwent transsphenoidal microsurgery of an ACTH-producing pituitary adenoma. Shortly after tumour removal, he developed a severe asthmatic attack requiring hospitalisation and intensive treatment. We conclude that patients with Cushing's syndrome and coexisting inflammatory/autoimmune disorders should be closely supervised after normalisation of cortisol production for exacerbation of the associated disease and would eventually benefit from glucocorticoid treatment.