EFFECTS OF CORTISONE ON ACUTE DISSEMINATED LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS

Abstract

AFTER THE demonstration by Hench and his associates¹ of the favorable influence of adrenal cortex hormone, 17-hydroxy-11-dehydrocorticosterone (cortisone), and pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) on the course of rheumatoid arthritis, it was only a matter of time and availability of the hormones until study of the effects of these substances was extended to include other members of the so-called collagen group of diseases, particularly rheumatic fever,² periarteritis nodosa³ and disseminated lupus erythematosus.⁴ The typical clinical features of disseminated lupus erythematosus⁵—the eruptive phenomena, arthritis, serous effusions and nephritis—as well as other far reaching systemic implications of the disease need not be elaborated here except to emphasize the high incidence of involvement in young women, the hyperreactive qualities of these patients, the insidious nature of the masked symptoms in the early phases and the tendency toward a course of recurrent relapses and remissions extending sometimes over a