X-linked adrenal hypoplasia congenita

What it is

A rare genetic adrenal disease characterized by primary adrenal insufficiency (AI) and/or hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH). Male patients typically present with AI with acute onset in infancy or insidious onset in childhood. Clinical features of AI include hyperpigmentation, vomiting, poor feeding, failure to thrive, seizures, vascular collapse, and sometimes sudden death. HH manifests later as delayed or arrested puberty. In rare cases, patients become symptomatic in early adulthood with delayed-onset AI, partial HH, and/or infertility. Histologically, the adrenal glands lack the permanent adult cortical zone. The remaining cells are larger than fetal adrenal cells (''cytomegalic'') and contain characteristic nuclear inclusions.

Key facts

Prevalence

1-9 / 100 000

Age of onset

Childhood, Infancy

Inheritance

X-linked recessive

Classified as

Disease

Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.

Signs and symptoms

These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.

Gene

ICD-10 codes

ICD-10 has no distinct code for most rare diseases, so many are filed under the nearest available one. A shared code identifies the group, not this disease — the ORPHAcode above is what identifies it.

Related health topics

Reached through the ICD-10 categories this disease is filed under, so these describe the broader group rather than this disease specifically.

Cross-references