Table 2 The prevalence of individual routine clinicopathological features of both hypoadrenocorticism and ‘atypical’ hypoadrenocorticism compiling data from the most relevant case series [14, 18, 25, 26, 28, 29, 37, 38, 42, 46, 66]. In most cases of primary hypoadrenocorticism, mineralocorticoid deficiency was presumed because of associated electrolyte abnormalities. In most cases of ‘atypical’ hypoadrenocorticism, electrolyte abnormalities were not present and while glucocorticoid deficiency was confirmed, mineralocorticoid production was not usually evaluated. Secondary hypoadrenocorticism was confirmed in only a small number of these cases but included two cases with hyponatraemia

Haematology

  Anaemia

130 (507)

27.0

23 (68)

33.8

  Neutrophilia

82 (334)

24.5

16 (68)

23.5

  Eosinophilia

81 (441)

18.4

13 (66)

19.7

  Relative erythrocytosis

64 (369)

17.3

0 (68)

0

  Lymphocytosis

38 (367)

10.4

14 (68)

20.6

Biochemistry

  Hyperkalaemia

467 (535)

87.2

0 (78)

0

  Increased urea

386 (472)

81.7

11 (67)

16.4

  Hyponatraemia

427 (533)

80.1

2 (78)

2.6

  Increased creatinine

241 (363)

66.4

4 (18)

22.2

  Hyperphosphataemia

273 (468)

58.3

0 (68)

0

  Increased ALT

85 (257)

33.1

14 (65)

21.5

  Increased AST

83 (260)

31.9

16 (41)

39

  Increased ALP

79 (260)

30.4

6 (65)

9.2

  Hypercalcaemia

144 (492)

29.3

1 (18)

5.5

  Hypoglycaemia

88 (553)

15.9

21 (67)

31.3

  Hypocholesterolaemia

42 (322)

13.0

45 (62)

72.5

  Hypoalbuminaemia

37 (359)

10.3

49 (66)

74.2

Urinalysis (hypoadrenocorticism only)

Mean

Range

Azotaemia and USG < 1.030

%

  Urine specific gravity

1.023

1.004–1.055

112 (193)

58