Adrenal crises in adolescents and young adults.

PURPOSE: Review the literature concerning adrenal insufficiency (AI) and adrenal crisis (AC) in adolescents and young adults. METHODS: Searches of PubMed identifying relevant reports up to March 2022. RESULTS: AI is rare disorder that requires lifelong glucocorticoid replacement therapy and is associated with substantial morbidity and occasional mortality among adolescents and young adults. Aetiologies in this age group are more commonly congenital, with acquired causes, resulting from tumours in the hypothalamic-pituitary area and autoimmune adrenalitis among others, increasing with age. All patients with AI are at risk of AC, which have an estimated incidence of 6 to 8 ACs/100 patient years. Prevention of ACs includes use of educational interventions to achieve competency in dose escalation and parenteral glucocorticoid administration during times of physiological stress, such as an intercurrent infection. While the incidence of AI/AC in young children and adults has been documented, there are few studies focussed on the AC occurrence in adolescents and young adults with AI. This is despite the range of developmental, psychosocial, and structural changes that can interfere with chronic disease management during this important period of growth and development. CONCLUSION: In this review, we examine the current state of knowledge of AC epidemiology in emerging adults; examine the causes of ACs in this age group; and suggest areas for further investigation that are aimed at reducing the incidence and health impact of ACs in these patients.

A pragmatic approach to effective anatomy teaching and learning to medical students: a ten-year experience using evidence-based principles.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Teaching and learning of anatomy for medical students have been extensively studied. However, we believe that a 'gold-standard' of an anatomy teaching and learning model is difficult to establish as every educational institution faces unique. For the past ten years at the University of Notre Dame Australia, School of Medicine Sydney, the anatomy faculty has implemented evidence-based teaching strategies adopted from medical schools around the world and supported by timely student feedback to deliver cost-effective and sustainable anatomy learning. Student evaluations of this program have been positive and associated with improved summative anatomy results. This article describes ten principles pursued by our faculty, which we hope will help others in restructuring or enhancing their anatomy teaching and learning program.