Background:
Adrenal insufficiency (AI) is a rare and a dangerous disease requiring a life-long glucocorticoid replacement therapy with dose adjustment in stressful situations which is linked to patient's knowledge and understanding. The aim of this study was to explore AI patients understanding regarding their disease, risk factors of adrenal crisis, as well as their attitude in stressful situations.
Materials and Methods:
We prospectively enrolled from October to January 2017, all patients with adrenal insufficiency (primary or secondary) treated and followed up in the Department of Endocrinology at University Hospital Center Hassan II of Fez. Patients were asked to fill out a questionnaire to assess their self-perceived subjective understanding to objectively evaluate their knowledge.
Results:
A total of 55 AI patients participated in this study. Overall, 74% of patients had no sufficient understanding of their disease; more participants gave incorrect answers to how to act in different stressful situations. Eleven patients (20%) did not possess a “steroid warning card,” twenty-five patients (45%) had the injectable hydrocortisone (HC) set at home; 40% carried the HC required for the day with them. Globally, the patients self-perceived, subjective knowledge level was not good, a severe lack of knowledge had been identified concerning the knowledge of risk factors of AI.
Conclusion:
The present study shows the urgent need to develop a structured and continuous education of patients with adrenal insufficiency to improve their self-management of the disease.
Introduction:
The standard gold treatment of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHP) is parathyroidectomy. Imaging in particular, cervical ultrasound (US) and technetium-99 m- méthoxyisobutylisonitrileparathyroid scintigraphy using the single-photon emission computed tomography (TC-99 m-MIBI-SPECT) are always indicated prior to parathyroid surgery, allowing the location of parathyroid adenomas. The objective of our study is to evaluate the contribution of TC-99 m-MIBI-SPECT and US in the preoperative topographic diagnosis of PHP.
Materials and Methods:
this is a descriptive and analytical retrospective study, conducted in our department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolic Diseases in Hassan II University Hospital of Fez between 2009 and 2018. All patients who received a para-thyroidectomy for PHP were recruited. All patients had received a cervical US and a TC-99 m-MIBI-SPECT. We compared imaging data before surgery with data from intraoperative exploration and anatomopathological findings of surgical samples.
Results:
Forty-eight patients were collected. US correctly identified parathyroid adenoma in 85.40% of patients with PHP versus 89.50% in TC-99 m-MIBI-SPECT. US correctly predicted surgical outecomes in 97.60% of patients and TC-99 m-MIBI-SPECT in 97.72% of cases. Their combination had better results in sensitivity and positive predictive value.
Conclusion:
TC-99 m-MIBI-parathyroid scintigraphy SPECT had a higher probability for solitary parathyroid adenoma compared to cervical US. Its use coupled with the TC-99 m-MIBI-parathyroid scintigraphy SPECT allows reliable preoperative tracking.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.