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The prevalence of Addison's disease in Coventry, UK

1997; Oxford University Press; Volume: 73; Issue: 859 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1136/pgmj.73.859.286

1469-0756

AndrewC Willis, F. P. Vince,

Pituitary Gland Disorders and Treatments

Summary The prevalence of Addison's disease (chronic adrenal failure) has not been widely investigated and is usually given as 39 in a million. We conducted a prevalence study using a postal survey of general practitioners in Coventry. Three quarters (139/188) replied, representing 79/85 (93%) of the practices. Thirty cases of Addision's disease were found from a total patient list of 323852, of which a third were tuberculous in origin and two-thirds non-tuberculous (12/30 autoimmune, 8/30 unclassified). We conclude that Addison's disease is 2.4 times more common than previously reported. The tuberculous group was older, 65 vs 52 years (p < 0.05), and had had the disease for longer than the non-tuberculous group, 20 vs 12 years (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the age at diagnosis.