ELECTROLYTE AND STEROID METABOLISM IN A PREGNANT ADDISONIAN

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Abstract
Pregnancy in a patient with Addison's disease affords a unique opportunity to study the steroid metabolism of the adrenal gland and placenta. Interest in this problem was initiated in 1943 by the publication of observations on the first Addisonian to complete a pregnancy at the University of Minnesota Hospitals (1). A more extensive study of the first such patient to complete pregnancy during therapy with cortisone alone is presented below. These observations raise questions concerning the source of the increased urinary pregnanediol in normal pregnancy, and the validity of the concept of adrenocortical activity of the placenta.