Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Large populations of HIV and tuberculosis occur in South Africa and, amongst these patients, Addison’s disease is probably underdiagnosed. Preliminary data in 60 HIV-positive patients with a CD4 count less than 100 cells/mm3 showed that the overall prevalence of hypoadrenalism was 6.7%, with 1 patient having primary hypoadrenalism and 3 patients having central hypoadrenalism. This report describes the prevalence of hypoadrenalism and its association...

Background: Salivary cortisol, as measured using electro-chemiluminescence has been used to monitor patients with Addison’s disease (AD) on hydrocortisone replacement. Salivary cortisone has been suggested as an alternative to salivary cortisol, as it may accurately reflect plasma free cortisol. We wished to examine the pharmacokinetics of these analytes in patients and controls.Methods: We measured salivary cortisol and salivary cortisone by liquid...

Background: Addison’s disease is probably under-diagnosed in South Africa, given that the prevalence is considerably lower than reported in Western countries (Chabre O 2017); this is important as patients may be dying from a highly treatable condition. In addition, large populations of HIV and tuberculosis infected patients in South Africa may have some symptoms erroneously attributed to these conditions, rather than Addison’s disease. We determined the prevalence an...