severe adrenocortical insufficiency when an intercurrent illness or trauma causes an increased demand for adrenocortical hormones in a patient with adrenal insufficiency resulting from disease or use of relatively large amounts of similar hormones as therapy; characterized by nausea, vomiting, hypotension, and frequently hyperthemia, hyponatremia, hyperkalemia, and hypoglycemia; can be fatal if untreated. Death results from fulminant inflammation and/or circulatory collapses (i.e., shock). SYN: addisonian crisis, adrenal crisis, Bernard-Sergent syndrome.
