ACTIVATION OF PEPTIC ULCER DURING PITUITARY ADRENOCORTICOTROPIC HORMONE THERAPY

Abstract

In their review of treatment with pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), Thorn and his coauthors,¹ referring to a personal communication from Spiro, state that "although definitive studies have not yet been completed, the clinical impression seems to have been gained that ACTH administration may aggravate the symptoms of peptic ulcer." In the Armour pamphlet² on the hormone (1950) it is stated: "Patients with duodenal and gastric ulcers studied to date have done poorly on ACTH. We do not recommend it in any case having a duodenal or gastric ulcer." I have observed three cases in which there was a recurrence of a peptic ulcer during treatment with pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone, out of a group of 79 cases in which the hormone was used for varying conditions at the Passavant Memorial Hospital. I have been able to find only two previously reported cases in which there was activation of a