Increased blood cortisol in alcoholic patients with aseptic necrosis of the femoral head.

Although aseptic necrosis of the femoral head secondary to alcoholism is a very frequent entity, its etiology remains unknown. The same pathogenic mechanism is thought to be shared both by aseptic necrosis secondary to alcoholism and steroid therapy. Since alcohol stimulates adrenal steroid secretion, we have studied serum cortisol and urinary free-cortisol levels in 8 patients with aseptic necrosis of the femoral head due to alcoholism and compared them with those found in 8 age-matched patients with aseptic necrosis of idiopathic origin. Serum cortisol levels and urinary free-cortisol levels were significantly higher in the alcoholic than in the idiopathic group: serum 227 +/- 21.7 vs 154 +/- 22.1 ng/ml, P less than 0.001; urine 0.20 +/- 0.002 vs 0.13 +/- 0.04 micrograms/mg Cr/day, P less than 0.001. The data indicate that alcohol-induced aseptic necrosis of the femoral head results, at least in part, from increased circulating cortisol.