Mortality and Morbidity in Cushing's Disease over 50 Years in Stoke-on-Trent, UK: Audit and Meta-Analysis of Literature

Overall mortality in CD is double that of the general population. However, patients with CD in remission fare much better than those with persistence of hypercortisolism, and they appear not to have an increased mortality rate. Hypertension and diabetes mellitus are risk factors for worse outcome. Because diagnosis and treatment of patients are at a young age, much longer follow-up of patients in remission is required before one can be confident that their mortality outcome is no different from that of the general population, especially because cardiovascular risk factors may persist after successful biochemical control of the disease.