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Endocrine Abstracts (2015) 38 P316 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.38.P316

SFEBES2015 Poster Presentations Pituitary (48 abstracts)

Does basal post-operative early morning cortisol measurement predict HPA axis integrity as assessed by an insulin tolerance test in patients who have undergone pituitary surgery?

Syed Mustafa Ali Ahmad 1 , Debbie Papadopoulou 1, , Emma Hatfield 1, , Nigel Mendoza 3 , Ramesh Nair 3 , Karim Meeran 1, & Niamh M Martin 1,


1Section of Investigative Medicine, Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Imperial College London, London, UK; 2Imperial Centre for Endocrinology, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK; 3Department of Neurosurgery, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK.


Background: Correct identification of patients with HPA axis dysfunction following trans-sphenoidal pituitary surgery is important. Our centre measures post-operative day 5 0900 h serum cortisol (24 h after the last dose of glucocorticoid) to identify the need for glucocorticoid replacement. This is given if post-operative day 5 0900 h cortisol concentration is <300 nmol/l, until dynamic pituitary function assessment occurs.

Methods: Data were reviewed for 51 patients undergoing an insulin tolerance test (ITT) ~6 weeks after pituitary surgery (2010–2015) using a new cortisol assay. The peak cortisol concentration during an ITT was compared to post-operative day 5 0900 h serum cortisol.

Results: Of the 27 patients who passed the ITT (peak cortisol >450 nmol/l) 18 had post-operative day 5 0900 h cortisol concentration <300 nmol/l. Of the 24 patients who failed the ITT, seven had post-operative day 5 0900 h cortisol concentrations of >300 nmol/l. The cortisol concentration cut-off point of 300 nmol/l had 70.8% (95% CI: 48.91–87.38%) diagnostic sensitivity and 33.3% (95% CI: 16.52–54.0%) diagnostic specificity. 100% (85.75–100.00%) sensitivity was achieved by increasing the cut-off to 633 nmol/l. Decreasing the cut-off to 101 nmol/l resulted in 100% (87.23–100.00%) specificity. The ROC curve investigating the predictive ability of post-operative day 5 0900 h cortisol had an AUC of 0.60 (95% CI 0.44–0.76).

Conclusions: Following pituitary surgery, post-operative day 5 0900 h cortisol measurement is effective at identifying patients who will subsequently fail an ITT, and hence, require glucocorticoid replacement. However, the current cut-off of 300 nmol/l falsely reassures some patients they do not need glucocorticoid replacement post-operatively.

Volume 38

Society for Endocrinology BES 2015

Edinburgh, UK
02 Nov 2015 - 04 Nov 2015

Society for Endocrinology 

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