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a hormonal disorder resulting from abnormal steroid production by the adrenal cortex, due to a genetic fault. It may cause masculinization in girls, precocious puberty in boys, and adrenocortical failure (see Addison's disease) in both sexes. Treatment is by lifelong steroid replacement.
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a general term for the group of syndromes in which inappropriate masculinization or feminization, sometimes with precocious puberty, results from disorders of adrenal function that also affect gonadal steroidogenesis; it includes congenital adrenal hyperplasia and tumors of the adrenal cortex.Medical dictionary. 2011.