The incidence of adrenal and other antibodies in the sera of patients with idiopathic adrenal insufficiency (Addison's disease)

Abstract

The histories of 118 (sixty-one males, fifty-seven females) with idiopathic Addison's disease were reviewed and their sera tested for adrenal, thyroid, gastric and parathyroid antibodies. Adrenal antibodies were found in approximately 50% of patients with idiopathic Addison's disease. The majority of these patients, particularly the females, had an associated diagnosed disease. Studies of antibodies to various tissues is of assistance in detecting the frequent sub-clinical occurrence of other diseases in idiopathic Addison's disease. The onset of idiopathic Addison's disease in sixty-four of the group was during adult life, in forty-seven during childhood, and in seven was not known. In fifty-one the diagnosis of an associated disease had been made (hypoparathyroidism, eighteen; pernicious anaemia, seven; moniliasis, seven; diabetes, ten; cirrhosis, two; alopecia, three; thyroid disease, thirty). A further twenty-four patients had antibodies to gastric, thryoid or parathyroid tissue. The finding of an associated disease, or antibody other than adrenal, was greatest in adult females (thirty-three of thirty-nine), frequent in female children (thirteen of seventeen), less common in adult males (eleven of twenty-five) and least in male children (thirteen of thirty). Only forty-three of the group had no evidence of an associated disease. Adrenal antibodies were found in fifty-seven of the 118 patients studied, occurring most frequently in females with a diagnosed associated disease (twenty-three of thirty), and least commonly in males without an associated disease (seven of forty).