Addison’s disease is an endocrine disorder that occurs as a result of adrenal deficiency. The infection results in hypocortisolism condition in which the adrenal glands produce insufficient steroid hormones. At the initial phase of the infection, the symptoms are mild and may include darkening of the skin color, weight reduction and abdominal pain ( Sævik, Åkerman, Grønning, Nermoen, Vallan, Finnes, and Skov, 2018) . However, in extreme cases, the patient may vomit, lose consciousness, and experience back pains as a result of low blood pressure. Addison’s disease is also known as hypoadrenalism or chronic adrenal insufficiency and is prevalent among the middle-aged females. According to the report by the World Health Organization, about 1 out of 10,000 people have Addison’s disease.
The history of Addison’s disease can be traced back to 1855. The name of the infection was coined by Dr Thomas Addison who first described the unique symptoms of the disorder from his six patients that suffered from adrenal tuberculosis ( Eriksson, Bianchi, Landegren, Nordin, Dalin, Mathioudaki, and Karlsson, 2016) . Before 1855, Addison’s disease was associated with anemia of the adrenal glands. However, Dr Thomas used monograph test to identify the uniqueness of the infection from the common anemia disease.
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The etiology of Addison’s disease is traced from the mechanism that it affects the adrenal glands. The first cause of the infection is adrenal dysgenesis ( Cooper et al., 2015) . Dysgenesis of adrenaline occurs in cases where the adrenal glands were not formed adequately during its development. Impaired steroidogenesis or adrenal destruction can also cause the disease ( Cooper et al., 2015) .
Diagnosis of chronic adrenal insufficiency is made using either blood or urine tests. The laboratory tests may indicate hypoglycemia, hyperkalemia, hyponatremia or Eosinophilia ( Cooper, Copeland, and Peiris, 2015) . Hypoglycemia indicates low blood sugar while hyponatremia shows low blood sodium which is a positive indicator of Addison’s disease.
Evaluation of the infection indicates that Addison’s disease is common in the developed nations. The middle-aged people are highly likely to acquire the disease. Additionally, the secondary hypocortisolism is more common compared to the primary adrenal insufficiency.
Chronic adrenal insufficiency is treated using corticosteroids which are responsible for activating adrenaline. Typical corticosteroids include fludrocortisone and hydrocortisone ( Cooper et al., 2015) . The prognosis of the disease indicates that people can live a healthy life if the infection is detected and treated on time. However, the chances of developing diabetes mellitus when one is infected with chronic adrenal insufficiency are high. Therefore, the mortality rate of the victims increases when they acquire the Addison’s disease.
References
Cooper, M. M., Copeland, R. J., & Peiris, A. N. (2015). Plasma ACTH in Addison’s Disease: Therapeutic Implications. Tennessee Medicine E-Journal , 1 (4), 8.
Eriksson, D., Bianchi, M., Landegren, N., Nordin, J., Dalin, F., Mathioudaki, A., ... & Karlsson, Å. (2016). Extended exome sequencing identifies BACH2 as a novel major risk locus for Addison's disease. Journal of Internal Medicine , 280 (6), 595-608.
Sævik, Å. B., Åkerman, A. K., Grønning, K., Nermoen, I., Valland, S. F., Finnes, T. E., ... & Skov, J. (2018). Clues for early detection of autoimmune Addison's disease–myths and realities. Journal of Internal Medicine , 283 (2), 190-199.
