PITUITARY BASOPHILISM (CUSHING'S SYNDROME)

Abstract

In 1932 Cushing¹ described the clinical syndrome of pituitary basophilism, now frequently referred to as Cushing's syndrome. In 1933 he published additional information pertinent to this interesting condition and listed fourteen verified cases reported in the literature. Most of these were originally recorded as examples of multiglandular disease. The significance of the pituitary lesion (if found at the time) was not appreciated. The general interest in this newly described syndrome is indicated by the increasing number of cases recognized clinically. How many of these clinical diagnoses will be substantiated by pathologic proof time alone will tell. Eight cases² of the typical syndrome of pituitary basophilism in which a basophil adenoma of the pituitary gland was found at postmortem examination have been reported since Cushing's review (1933).³ The important features of these cases, together with those of a verified case (herein reported), appear in table 1. Several observations of unusual interest