Endocrine Manifestations in a Monocentric Cohort of 64 Patients With Erdheim-Chester Disease

Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) is a rare non-Langerhans cell histiocytosis, characterized by infiltration of foamy histiocytes in multiple organs. Endocrine involvement has mostly been described in case reports.

We performed systematic endocrine evaluation in a large cohort of patients with ECD.

This was a single-center observational study conducted between October 2007 and May 2013.

The evaluation was conducted in Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital (Paris, France), a tertiary care hospital.

Sixty-four consecutive patients with ECD (sex ratio, 3.6; mean age, 57.6 years [range, 20-80 years]). Thirty-six patients had follow-up assessments.

There were no interventions.

Clinical, biological, and morphological evaluations of pituitary, gonadal, adrenal, and thyroid functions, as well as metabolic evaluation, were performed.

Diabetes insipidus was found in 33.3% of patients, frequently as the first manifestation of ECD. Anterior pituitary dysfunction was found in 91.3% of patients with full anterior pituitary evaluation, including somatotropic deficiency (78.6%), hyperprolactinemia (44.1%), gonadotropic deficiency (22.2%), thyrotropic deficiency (9.5%), and corticotropic deficiency (3.1%). Thirty-five patients (54.7%) had ≥2 anterior pituitary dysfunctional axes, rising to 69.6% (16 of 23) when only patients with complete evaluations were considered. Two patients had panhypopituitarism. Infiltration of the pituitary and stalk was found with magnetic resonance imaging in 24.4% of patients. Testicular insufficiency was found in 53.1% of patients, with sonographic testicular infiltration in 29% of men, mostly bilateral. Computed tomography adrenal infiltration was found in 39.1% of patients, and 1 case of adrenal insufficiency was observed. No patient was free of endocrine hormonal or morphological involvement. Endocrine dysfunctions were most often permanent, and new deficits appeared during follow-up.

Endocrine involvement is very frequent in ECD and should be evaluated carefully at diagnosis and during follow-up.