'Cushing's disease of the omentum' has been proposed as an underlying mechanism in the pathogenesis of central obesity and raises the exciting possibility of selective 11beta-HSD1 inhibition as a novel therapy for patients with the metabolic syndrome.
We have described a case of Cushing's disease that failed to present with a classical phenotype, and we postulate that this is due to a partial defect of 11beta-HSD1 activity, the defect in cortisone to cortisol conversion increasing cortisol clearance and thus protecting the patient from the effects of cortisol excess.