Pediatria pre prax 4/2016

Could clinical symptoms of the gastrointestinal tract disguise a life threatening condition?

In paediatric practice encountering symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, lack of appetite, diarrhoea, abdominal pain are generally associated with and credited to maladies of the gastrointestinal tract. This paper focuses on a case study of a nine-year-old boy tracing the causal background of his deteriorating condition. Within a period of two months he was admitted twice for ambulatory treatment of nausea and vomiting. First he was hospitalized for impaired digestion, however upon symptomatic treatment and rehydration he quickly recovered. Two months following his first hospitalization, he was yet again admitted for aggravated albeit similar and additional symptoms such as fatigue, weight loss, emotional instability and an excessive use of salt. Given the thoroughly assessed anamnesis and study of his clinical symptoms along with the laboratory results, our team’s assumption of Addison’s disease had been confirmed.

Keywords: autoimmune polyglandular syndrome, Addison´s disease, celiac disease, autoimmune thyreoiditis