Clinical Pediatric Endocrinology Vol. 25(2016) No. 3

To find a simple method to screen for iatrogenic childhood adrenal insufficiency, we retrospectively examined the results of CRH stimulation tests performed 212 times on 111 subjects (68 males; age at commencement of initial treatment ranged 0.0–19.8 yr; median age, 5.8 yr). Before the commencement of this study, 97 subjects had been treated with glucocorticoids and 14 subjects with West syndrome had been treated with synthetic adrenocorticotropic hormone. Duration of the primary treatment ranged from 15 to 2150 days. CRH stimulation tests were conducted between 09:00 AM and 10:00 AM and peak cortisol values less than 15 µg/dL were considered indicative of adrenal insufficiency. The receiver operating characteristic curve showed that the optimal basal serum cortisol cut-off values when screening for adrenal suppression ranged from 5.35 to 5.80 µg/dL depending on the primary disease. All subjects having a serum cortisol value of less than 2.3 µg/dL had insufficient adrenal function while all subjects having greater than 11 µg/dL had intact adrenal function. We concluded that single serum cortisol values obtained between 09:00 AM and 10:00 AM had the potential to serve as an index of adrenal function in children treated with glucocorticoids or synthetic adrenocorticotropic hormone.

We report a Japanese pedigree with familial primary hyperparathyroidism due to a CDC73 mutation. To our knowledge, this is the first report of cinacalcet as a treatment for CDC73-related primary hyperparathyroidism. The proband had severe psychomotor retardation and received laryngotracheal separation surgery. At 19 yr of age, he developed acute pancreatitis. Hypercalcemia (12.2–13.8 mg/dL), elevated levels of intact PTH (86–160 pg/mL), and a tumor detected upon neck ultrasonography led to the diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism. Family history and biochemical examinations revealed that three family members (the proband’s mother, elder brother, and maternal grandfather) had primary hyperparathyroidism. We identified a novel heterozygous mutation, c.240delT, p.Glu81Lysfs*28, in the CDC73 gene in three affected family members, excluding the proband’s elder brother who refused genetic testing. Parathyroidectomy for the proband was considered as high-risk, because the tumor was located close to the tracheostomy orifice. After receiving approval from the institutional review board and obtaining the consent, we initiated cinacalcet treatment. At 22 yr of age, treatment with 100 mg of cinacalcet maintained serum calcium levels below 11.0 mg/dL with no apparent side effects. Our report presents the potential efficacy of cinacalcet as a treatment for CDC73-related primary hyperparathyroidism, in particularly inoperative cases.