INFECTIONS AND VIRILIZING ADRENAL HYPERPLASIA

[摘要] PHYSICIANS who treat children with virilizing adrenal hyperplasia frequently question the proper course of therapy that should be followed when these patients are exposed to infectious diseases. Misconceptions have developed because of a tendency to confuse these patients, who need adrenocorticosteroids only for replacement therapy, with patients having other syndromes who are receiving suppression therapy.Children with virilizing adrenal hyperplasia are given long-term treatment with physiologic amounts of adrenocorticosteroids to replace those steroids which their adrenal glands are unable to produce. It is hoped that their abnormally large adrenal glands can thus be reduced to a normal size. This is replacement therapy.Children with asthma, leukemia, nephrosis, etc., may be given large doses of steroids in an empiric effort to induce remissions in these diseases.

[学科分类] 儿科学