Panhypopituitarism in Acute Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

While hypopituitarism is known to be associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, panhypopituitarism as a complication of myocardial infarction (MI) is very rare. Here, we report a case of rapidly developing empty sella syndrome with florid manifestations of panhypopituitarism after MI (due to critical stenosis in the left anterior descending artery) complicated by cardiogenic shock in a 65-year-old man. The patient was initially stabilized with conservative management of non-ST-elevated MI and cardiogenic shock, but after initial improvement, he again deteriorated with refractory shock (not adequately responding to vasopressors), seizures, hypoglycemia, hyponatremia, hyperkalemia, and metabolic acidosis. After ruling out recurrent cardiogenic shock or other causes of refractory hypotension, panhypopituitarism was diagnosed with the help of hormonal assays and imaging. With no prior evidence of hypopituitarism, we suspect that panhypopituitarism developed due to acute pituitary apoplexy secondary to initial cardiogenic shock. The patient was successfully survived by the emergency endocrine management followed by secondary coronary angioplasty.