Addison's disease in a lady with hemoglobin H disease

Abstract

Hemoglobin H (HbH) disease is alpha (α)-thalassemia characterized by the inactivation of three of four α-globin genes due to deletions with or without nondeletional α-thalassemia. HbH disease is not necessarily a benign disorder as has been generally thought. Here, we report a 33-year-old female who has a lifelong history of anemia without blood transfusions. but when she got married, during pregnancies developed symptomatic moderate-to-severe anemia necessitating infrequent blood transfusions. Later due to symptomatic anemias and increasing the frequency of blood transfusions, she underwent splenectomy, 3 years from splenectomy she developed a gradual dark skin discoloration with frequent hypotension and was diagnosed with Addison's disease which is a rare endocrine complication of thalassemia-induced iron overload.