Endocrine Abstracts

Object: In Addison’s disease hydrocortisone or cortisone have so far been used at doses of 30–37.5 mg/day, respectively, though several studies showed that cortisol normal production is about 5.7 mg/m2 (20–25 mg/day of hydrocortisone or cortisone, respectively). Differently from secondary hypoadrenalism, scanty data exist in patients with Addison’s disease on role of conventional glucocorticoid replacement and metabolic and cardiovascular outcome...

Object: In Addison’s disease (AD), although glucocorticoid (GC) replacement is essential for health and, indeed, life, several studies showed that conventional GCs doses are involved in metabolic and cardiovascular alterations observed in this disease. As the effects of GCs are mediated by the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), encoded by NR3C1 gene, different polymorphisms in the NR3C1 gene have been linked to altered glucocorticoid sensitivity in general population as well a...