Primary adrenal insufficiency

Abstract

Due to the non-specificity of a number of clinical manifestations of Addison’s disease, the diagnosis of primary adrenal insufficiency in general therapeutic profile hospitals causes certain difficulties. The article presents a clinical case of diagnosing primary adrenal insufficiency in combination with autoimmune thyroiditis and hypogonadism as a manifestation of autoimmune polyglandular syndrome. Signs of Addison’s disease included hyperpigmentation of the skin and mucous membranes of the oral cavity, as well as low cortisol levels and an increase in adrenocorticotropic hormone(ACTH) concentration, detected in the blood serum antibodies to thyroperoxidase — a specific marker of autoimmune thyroid gland damage. A positive result of the test for autoantibodies to steroid-producing cells indicated functional ovarian insufficiency.