Usefulness of prolactin measurement in inferior petrosal sinus sampling with desmopressin for Cushing’s syndrome

Abstract

Background: Bilateral inferior petrosal sinus sampling (IPSS) is used to distinguish pituitary from ectopic adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) excess in patients with ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome. Our objective was to examine the utility of prolactin measurement during IPSS with desmopressin (DDAVP) stimulation in localization of the source of ACTH excess.

Method: Retrospective review of 20 patients with ACTH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome who underwent IPSS with DDAVP stimulation. Baseline, DDAVP-stimulated, and prolactin-normalized ACTH IPS:P (inferior petrosal sinus to peripheral) ratios were calculated. Cut-off values for each test were obtained from receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

Results: Fifteen patients had Cushing disease (CD), and five were diagnosed with ectopic ACTH syndrome (EAS). For the baseline ACTH IPS:P ratio of ≥2, the diagnostic sensitivity (80%), specificity (100%), positive predictive value (PPV) (100%) and negative predictive value (NPV) (62.5%) were calculated. These values for DDAVP-stimulated IPS:P ACTH ratio ≥ 3, were 86.7%, 100%, 100% and 71.4%, respectively. The corresponding value for the prolactin-normalized ACTH IPS:P ratio ≥ 0.8 were 86.6%, 80%, 92.8% and 66.7%. The cut-off value for the baseline, DDAVP-stimulated and prolactin-normalized ACTH IPS:P ratios were 1.76, 3.9, and 0.33, respectively.

Conclusion: Prolactin-normalized ACTH IPS:P ratio measurement showed comparable sensitivity and less specificity than baseline/DDAVP-stimulated IPS/P ACTH ratios. Moreover, when baseline and stimulated IPS/P ACTH tests were discordant, prolactin-normalized ACTH IPS: P ratio correctly localized the source of ACTH excess. The sensitivity of the test increased, applying a prolactin-normalized ACTH IPS: P ratio ≥0.33.

Keywords:

• Inferior petrosal sinus sampling
• adrenocorticotropic hormone IPS:P ratio
• Cushing’s syndrome

Ethical approval

Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the ethics committee of the Iran University of Medical Science (Protocol no. IR.IUMS.REC.1397.488).

Author contributions

HA, MGH, and MEKH are responsible for study conception, design, data acquisition, analysis, interpretation as well as drafting the manuscript and critically revising it. HA and MK contributed to data acquisition and critical revisions of the manuscript. All authors have approved the final manuscript and are accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data are available from the corresponding author (Mohammad Ebrahim Khamseh, e-mail: [email protected]) on reasonable request.