Hello and welcome to the zero to finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about Cushing's syndrome.

And if you want to follow along with written notes on this topic,

you can follow along at 0.0.15.com slash Cushings

or in the endocrinology section of the zero to finals medicine book.

So let's get straight into it.

Cushing's syndrome is used to refer to the signs and symptoms that develop after prolonged

abnormal elevation of cortisol.

Cushing's disease is used to refer to the specific condition where a perturatory adenoma or a tumor in the

pituitary gland secrete's excessive acethe or adrenocortico-trophic hormone. Cushing's disease causes Cushing's

syndrome, but Cushing's syndrome is not always caused by Cushing's disease. So what are the features of Cushing syndrome? There's a large number of features of Cushing syndrome is not always caused by Cushing's disease. So what are the features of Cushing syndrome?

There's a large number of features of Cushing syndrome

and they don't easily fit into a handy pneumonic.

I find it easier to picture the patient as very round in the middle

with thin, weak limbs and then imagine the effects of high levels of stress hormone on the body.

When we talk about them being round in the middle with thin limbs,

patients are described as having a round moon-like face, central obesity,

abdominal striae where the central obesity has stretched the skin and caused stretch

marks on the skin, a buffalo hump, which is a fat pad on the upper back, and proximal limb

muscle wasting, which causes the thin limbs. High levels of stress hormone causes hypertension, cardiac hypertrophy,

hyperglycemia and type 2 diabetes, depression and insomnia, difficulty sleeping.

There's some added important effects of high levels of steroid on the body,

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