| Title | Addisonian crisis while taking high-dose glucocorticoids. An unusual presentation of primary adrenal failure in two patients with underlying inflammatory diseases. |
| Author(s) | Jacobs TP, Whitlock RT, Edsall J, Holub DA |
| Institution | Department of Medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, NY. |
| Source | JAMA 1988 Oct 14; 260(14):2082-4. |
| MeSH | Addison Disease
Adolescent
Adrenal Cortex Diseases
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Mineralocorticoids
Pericarditis
Pleurisy
Prednisone
Sarcoidosis
|
| Abstract | The diagnosis of acute hypoadrenalism seldom is considered in patients without known adrenal insufficiency who are taking supraphysiologic amounts of glucocorticoids. We report two patients who presented in acute addisonian crisis on more than one occasion while taking high doses of glucocorticoids (30 to 40 mg of prednisone daily) for underlying inflammatory disease (recurrent pleuropericarditis and sarcoidosis). Evidence of severe mineralocorticoid deficiency was present in each patient, and the conditions of both improved remarkably when mineralocorticoid was added to their regimens. The cause of primary adrenal failure and its acute presentation was unclear in both patients but is presumed to be related to the underlying inflammatory disease. |
| Language | eng |
| Pub Type(s) | Case Reports
Journal Article
|
| PubMed ID | 3418873 |
