Skip to main content

ACTH lab results from 9/28 and 10/3

ACTH is produced by the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland. It tells the adrenal glands to make cortisol. Normal range is 6 to 50 ng/l. My results:

9/28
before: < 5
1 hour later: 13 (after injection with Cortrosyn)
10/3: < 5

Cortrosyn is a synthetic portion of ACTH. So basically, these values mean that no ACTH is being produced by my pituitary gland. Most likely, the part of the pituitary gland that makes ACTH has been damaged. This would be specific hypopituitarism, as other hormones from my pituitary gland are still being produced:

  • Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH): FSH works with LH to ensure normal functioning of the ovaries and testes.
  • Growth hormone (GH): GH is essential in early years to maintaining a healthy body composition and for growth in children. In adults, it aids healthy bone and muscle mass and affects fat distribution.
  • Luteinizing hormone (LH): LH works with FSH to ensure normal functioning of the ovaries and testes.
  • Prolactin: Prolactin stimulates breast milk production.
  • Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH): TSH stimulates the thyroid gland to produce hormones.
Lab results for most of them on 10/3 are within the normal range:

  • FSH: 5.8
  • GHG: (not tested)
  • LH: 4.2
  • Prolactin: 5.3
  • TSH: 1.05

Comments

  1. Hi Kyle.
    I’ve been reading with interest because when my right adrenal gland was destroyed by diesase, my urologist told me not to worry. Since we have two, the other would be able to take care of things just fine.

    that’s why it caught my interest when they thought one of yours was not working because of lab results. I never had to that any meds, my left one evidently, as the urologist said, has been doing what i need.

    IL-2 did mess up my thyroid and I am on thyroid med for life now. They check my TSH to determine what dose level of med to take. I’m hoping you’ll have a similar scenario to get everything back on track.

    - Mike

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2nd talk with Surgeon

Found out more about the VATS procedure today. They'll remove a nodule, and then keep me on the table while it's biopsied. If it is positive, they'll get more material, then wrap up. If the biopsy comes back negative, they'll do another nodule... and biopsy again and wait... not sure how many times they'll repeat. I guess I'm hoping for a long procedure. The surgeon said he'll ask the lab to freeze some of the material so that I could have it retrieved at a later time... mentioned I was getting a second opinion from UCSF cancer center, and that UCSF may therefore be interested in getting some of the sample as well.

Cyberknife 11/9-10

Underwent 2 cyberknife sessions, the first to treat the tumor bed of the first brain tumor, the second to treat the second one that showed up recently. The procedure is pretty straightforward, it's outpatient. The picture shows the mask they made for me which holds my head in place so the laser is accurate. Each session was an hour or so. I should know by the end of the weekend if there are any short-term complications (none I hope). Then it's a matter of letting the radiation do its job over the next couple of months. Then re-scanning to see both how the two treated areas are doing, and also to see if anything new shows up in the brain.

Cycle 4/Course 2 Finished

(8/6-8/9/2010) Finished cycle 4/course 2. Stopped this time due to some combination of high white T cell count, neurotoxicity and maybe something else. Tolerated 4 bags out of a total of 14, felt as bad as the other times where I tolerated more doses. Will get more scans in about 5 weeks time, and see what they look like compared to the last sets.