Tag: ACTH

  • Systemic hypertension, part 2: clinical signs and diagnosis

    Systemic hypertension, part 2: clinical signs and diagnosis

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    Systemic hypertension, part 1 Systemic hypertension (SH) alone is often asymptomatic until it is severe, making early detection difficult. For this reason, it is important to know the diseases, illnesses, and other causes that can contribute to SH and recognise their clinical signs. From there, through thorough diagnostic investigations, a diagnosis will, hopefully, result then…

  • Handling an Addisonian crisis – part 2

    Handling an Addisonian crisis – part 2

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    Managing an Addisonian crisis can be daunting, especially when the patient looks like it is about to check out and its baseline bloods show a sodium of 110mmol/L, a potassium of 8mmol/L and a glucose of 2.3mmol/L. That is enough to make anyone’s brain explode. The patient can be treated in many ways, but I…

  • SNAP cortisol test

    SNAP cortisol test

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    While hyperadrenocorticism is not an uncommon incidental finding in patients presenting to our emergency clinic, hypoadrenocorticism is a lot less common. Or, possibly, more frequently underdiagnosed. Textbook clinical presentations combined with haematology and biochemicial changes can make diagnosis straightforward, but not all patients will present with all the classic signs. To complicate things further, hypoadrenocorticism…