DIFFERENTIAL BLOOD COUNTS IN CERTAIN ADRENAL CORTICAL DISORDERS (CUSHING'S SYNDROME, ADDISON'S DISEASE AND PANHYPOPITUITARISM)1

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Abstract
SELYE (10) and Dougherty and White (3) demonstrated in rats that the administration of pituitary adrenocorticotrophic hormone results in an increase in the absolute number of neutrophiles and a decrease in the absolute number of lymphocytes in the blood stream. Dougherty and White (3) obtained the same hematological alterations directly with corticosterone and with 11-dehydro, 17-hydroxycorticosterone (Compound E of Kendall), both of which are adrenal cortical compounds with a marked effect on carbohydrate metabolism, hence “sugar-hormones”. Albright (1) has assembled the evidence that Cushing's syndrome is a manifestation of an hyperadrenocorticism-with-respect-to-the-“sugar-hormone”. It seemed of interest, therefore, to determine whether a neutrophilic leukocytosis coupled with a lymphopenia occurs in patients with this disorder, and to compare the findings with those in primary panhypoadrenocorticism (Addison's disease) and in panhypoadrenocorticism secondary to panhypopituitarism (Simmonds' disease, pituitary dwarfism, etc.). METHODS Ten patients with Cushing's syndrome, 20 patients with Addison's disease, and 20 patients with panhypopituitarism were used in this study, the diagnoses being carefullyestablished by methods described elsewhere (1, 5, 9).