Endocrine Abstracts

Objectives: Addison’s disease diagnostic and management challenges in Africa are not well documented. We aimed to identify the specific needs of patients with established Addison’s disease, across Africa.Methods: An online survey of a large pool of medical practitioners was undertaken. The questionnaire covered patient demographics, aetiology, therapy and limitations of diagnosis and treatment.Results: Of the 36,203 recip...

Background: The burden and management of Addison’s disease (AD) in Africa have not been well documented. We aimed to identify specific disease characteristics, patient demographics and patterns of clinical management in established AD in Africa, hypothesizing that deficiencies in diagnosis and management exist.Methods: An on-line survey of a large pool of medical practitioners’ experience from Africa and Middle East, relating to AD was conduc...

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: 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...