Jugular Vein Sampling for Hormone Levels for the Diagnosis of Cushing Syndrome

Completed

Conditions studied: Cushing's Syndrome

In brief

Patients with Cushing disease have hormone producing tumors in their pituitary gland. Often these tumors are so small they cannot be detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The inferior petrosal sinuses are small veins that drain the blood from the pituitary gland. By taking a small sample of blood from these sinuses, doctors can differentiate a small tumor in the pituitary gland from other tumors in the body producing the hormone. Patients with Cushing disease have high levels of the hormone ACTH in the petrosal sinuses. Patients with other causes of Cushing syndrome do not have increased levels of ACTH in the petrosal sinuses. The procedure to collect blood from the petrosal sinus is called Inferior Petrosal Sinus Sampling (IPSS). The technique is very sensitive and can tell the difference between a pituitary tumor and other causes of Cushing syndrome nearly 100% of the time. However, IPSS is very difficult to perform and is only available in a few hospitals. Therefore, researchers are looking for another possible way to diagnose Cushing syndrome that would be less technically difficult and more readily available to patients. ACTH is produced in the pituitary gland as a response to the production of Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone (CRH) in the brain (hypothalamus). This study will compare ACTH levels in the internal jugular veins before and after CRH stimulation with those obtained by conventional IPSS from patients with Cushing's syndrome. Obtaining blood from the jugular veins is a simple, practically risk free procedure that could be done easily in a community hospital on an out patient basis. Researchers believe that CRH stimulation will increase ACTH production from tumors of the pituitary gland (corticotroph adenomas) so that the diagnostic information from jugular venous sampling would be equivalent to that of IPSS. This proposal to develop jugular venous sampling (JVS) with CRH stimulation as a test for the differential diagnosis of Cushing Syndrome would potentially contribute greatly to the medical care of patients with Cushing syndrome, as a less costly, safer and more widely available alternative to IPSS.\<TAB\>

Key facts

Study ID

NCT00001453

Run by

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

People needed

98

Starts

1995-04-10

Expected to finish

2014-10-20

Last updated by the study team

2017-10-06

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 75. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may not qualify if…

• Patients will be excluded from entry to the protocol if:
• A clear-cut pituitary tumor is present on T1-weighted conventional pituitary MR scan.
• There is any contraindication to catheterization. Patients with known reaction to contrast material will be excluded from this elective study if they have a strong history of previous contrast media reaction and cannot be studied safely by giving medical prophylaxis before the procedure.
• The patient is pregnant.
• Combined blood withdrawal during the six weeks preceding the study exceeds 450 ml, or if hematocrit at entry is less than 33%.
• Because of the increased risk of morbidity caused by contrast dyes in patients with a renal dysfunction, patients with a creatinine greater than 1.3 mg/dl will be excluded.
• Patients with a diastolic blood pressure persistently greater than 100 mm Hg (with or without medication) will be excluded from sampling procedures.
• They have had radiation exposure during the previous year that represents a significant additive risk in combination with the expected doses in this protocol. Patients and their doctors will be questioned about their exposure to radiation before they are accepted into the protocol.
• For the questionnaire only, patients who do not speak and read English will be excluded. This instrument has not been validated in non-English speakers.

Where it is running

• National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike — Bethesda, Maryland, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

Trial information comes from ClinicalTrials.gov and is refreshed daily. TrialsForMe does not provide medical care and does not run the studies it lists.