Primary Adrenal Insufficiency (Addison′s disease) Associated with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Rare Occurrence

Abstract

Coexistence of Addison′s disease and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a rare occurrence with only few reported cases in the literature. We describe a 29-year-old woman who presented to us with clinical features of acute Addisonian crisis and SLE. Laboratory investigations were confirmatory of Addison′s disease in a background of SLE. The patient made remarkable improvement on administration of steroids as replacement therapy for adrenal insufficiency and treatment of SLE. Clinicians need to have a high-index of suspicion of this possible coexistence in order to avoid the associated deleterious hemodynamic and metabolic consequences.

Keywords

• Addison′s disease
• adrenocorticotropic hormone
• association
• cortisol
• systemic lupus erythematosis