Association of precipitating anti-adrenal anti-adrenal antibodies with moniliasis-polyendocrinopathy syndrome.

The association of precipitating anti-adrenal antibodies with different subgroups of idiopathic Addison's disease were studied. We had previously found these antibodies in patients with the moniliasis-polyendocrinopathy syndrome. Sera of 36 adult patients suffering from different froms of Addison's disease were examined for the presence of adrenal antibodies demonstrable either by immunofluorescence (IFL) or by gel diffusion. 3 of the 17 patients with tuberculous and 17 of 19 patients with idiopathic Addison's disease had IFL antibodies but only one had precipitating antibodies. There was one typical case of Schmidt's syndrome, and four additional cases with Addison's disease combined with diabetes or thyroiditis, who may later develop the syndrome. None of htese patients had precipitating anti-adrenal antibodies. The only patients with precipitating adrenal antibodies had the moniliasis-polyendocrinopathy syndrome. He was not typical as Addison' disease appeared unusually late and he did not have hypoparathyroidism. The presence of precipitating anti-adrenal antibodies in this patient, and the absence of these in other groups of Addison's disease, is further evidence for the association of precipitating antibodies with the moniliasis-polyendocrinopathy syndrome.