Spontaneous idiopathic bilateral adrenal haemorrhage:A rare cause of abdominal pain

Salik Nazir, Surendra Sivarajah, Valena Fiscus, Eugene York

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

We describe a case of a 62-year-old woman with a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease who presented to the emergency department with left lower quadrant abdominal pain, flank pain with nausea and no history of preceding trauma. The patient had finished a course of azithromycin and oral methylprednisolone 1 day prior to presentation. Abdominal and pelvic CT scan identified changes suggestive of bilateral adrenal haemorrhage. The patient did not show signs of acute adrenal insufficiency but was started on steroid replacement therapy because of concerns about possible disease progression. All recognised causes of adrenal haemorrhage were excluded suggesting this was a case of spontaneous idiopathic bilateral adrenal haemorrhage, a rarely reported phenomenon in the literature.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number215452
JournalBMJ case reports
Volume2016
DOIs
StatePublished - May 10 2016

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Medicine(all)

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