Your time with your doctor is limited, so preparing a list of questions ahead of time will help you make the most of your time together. Patients may present with clinical features of chronic addison’s disease or in acute addisonian crisis precipitated by stress factors such as infection, trauma, surgery, vomiting, diarrhea, or noncompliance with replacement steroids.
Addison’s disease affects about 1 to 4 people per 100,000 in the U.S. It is found in patients of all ages and affects both males and females equally. Symptoms of insufficiency may not emerge until about 80% to 90% of the adrenal cortex has been destroyed.
Sometimes only the adrenal gland is affected, as in idiopathic adrenal insufficiency; sometimes other glands also are affected, as in the polyendocrine deficiency syndrome.
