CLINICAL STUDIES WITH ACTH AND CORTISONE IN RENAL DISEASE

Abstract

THE DEVASTATING effects of glomerular nephritis and the considerable disability induced by this disease are well known. The fact that nephritis has a predilection for children and young adults serves as an additional stimulus to the search for a means of controlling the disease. To date, therapy is limited to procedures which ameliorate the metabolic abnormalities secondary to renal failure or attempts to reduce the incidence of intercurrent infections. The dramatic effect which pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and cortisone¹ exert on the course of a wide variety of systemic diseases of unknown origin, especially those in which an antigen-antibody type of reaction is believed to play an important etiologic role, stimulated us to investigate the possible beneficial effect of these hormones in patients with glomerular nephritis. Furthermore, earlier studies 2 indicating an apparent competitive inhibition of cortisone on excessive sodium retention induced by desoxycorticosterone naturally suggested an investigation of