Reticulum Rex Medical Centre

Posts Tagged ‘adrenal insufficiency’

What can your doctor do?

The GP may prescribe blood tests to determine levels of electrolytes (sodium and potassium), renal function, and baseline levels of cortisol. Hydrocortisone treatment may, if the diagnosis is obvious, instituted immediately after blood collection. It is necessary to refer the patient to the endocrinologist.

What can you do?

Treatment is usually for life. The neglect or abandonment of it can be fatal for the patient, so you should take some precautions. The biggest problem is that the needs of cortisol increases during physical stress such as major surgical interventions. Read the rest of this entry »

How is Addison’s disease diagnosed?

The pigmentation of the skin in this disease is very characteristic, and is particularly evident in areas hit particularly exposed, such as elbows and knuckles. Occasionally, the inside of the cheek, which usually has bite injuries, usually pigmented. Any scar that is acquired after the onset of the disease, also show pigmentation.

Some patients may also show signs of organ-specific autoimmune disease, such as the typical “patches” hypopigmented (whitish) skin of vitiligo own, or evidence of autoimmune thyroid disease such as goiter (enlargement of the neck ). In severe deficiency of cortisol, blood pressure tends to be abnormal, since there is a marked postural hypotension (drop in pressure when rising from a seat). In fact, Addison’s disease, systolic blood pressure (“high”), usually less than 110mmHg. When the voltage is too low, the patient may be at imminent risk of collapse. Read the rest of this entry »

What is the course of the disease?

Primary hypoadrenalism or Addison’s disease

Autoimmune Addison’s disease is a chronic disorder, and antibodies can be detected many years before the disease manifests itself clinically. There is no preventive treatment scientifically proven to prevent autoimmune damage to the cortex, which can also affect other organs in the same patient.

Therefore, patients with autoimmune Addison’s disease have an increased risk of other diseases such as vitiligo, autoimmune thyroid disease, pernicious anemia, and hypoparathyroidism. Patients with these diseases are also at greater risk of being affected by celiac disease. Read the rest of this entry »

What is hypocortisolism or adrenal insufficiency?

Hypoadrenalism call the condition in which the adrenal glands, which produce various hormones (or “chemical messengers”), operating below normal. Many of the symptoms of this disease is actually due to the lack of one, cortisol, steroid hormone whose decline or absence can be fatal. The adrenal glands are located just above the kidneys, abdomen, and consist of an outer part called the cortex and an inner or core. Cortisol production by the outer layer or cortex is regulated by the pituitary hormone called ACTH.

What is the cause of hypoadrenalism?

Primary hypoadrenalism or Addison’s disease

Primary adrenal insufficiency when it originates in the adrenal glands, ie, there is a disease of the same. The most common cause is an autoimmune disease against the aforementioned glands: that is, our immune system produces cells from the body itself, destroying its own tissues as if they mistakenly consider bacteria or viruses. Addison’s disease, the autoimmune system attacks the adrenal cortex, damaging and altering its structure. In some patients can be detected in the blood, antibodies against the adrenal cortex. Read the rest of this entry »