Obese patients with obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome show a peculiar alteration of the corticotroph but not of the thyrotroph and lactotroph function.

Clin Endocrinol (Oxf) 60(1):41-8 (2004) PMID 14678286

Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is strongly associated with obesity (OB) and is characterized by several changes in endocrine functions, e.g. GH/IGF-I axis, adrenal and thyroid activity. It is still unclear whether these alterations simply reflect overweight or include peculiar hypoxia-induced hormonal alterations. Hormonal evaluations have been generally performed in basal conditions but we have recently reported that OSAS is characterized by a more severe reduction of the GH releasable pool in comparison to simple obesity. We aimed to extend our evaluation of anterior pituitary function to corticotroph, thyrotroph and lactotroph secretion under dynamic testing in OSAS in comparison with simply obese and normal subjects.