INSUFFICIENCY OF ADRENAL CORTEX COMPLICATED BY HYPERTHYROIDISM

Abstract

The physiologic relationships of the thyroid and adrenal glands, studies of which were initiated by Marine and Baumann¹ and by Davis and Hastings,² have been reviewed by Lerman.³ There is considerable evidence that patients with hypofunction of the adrenal cortex may be thrown into a crisis by administration of thyroid,⁴ that thyroxine produces enlargement of the adrenal cortex and that other and often antagonistic correlations exist between these endocrine organs. The clinical association of hypethyroidism and insufficiency of the adrenal cortex has been noted but rarely. With the possible exception of 1 of 3 cases reviewed by Etienne and Richard⁵ and a more probable example described by Plá and Fabregat,⁶ we have been unable to find any references to the proved coexistence of these two diseases. Three cases have been described with a previous history of thyrotoxicosis and the subsequent development of Addison's disease,