EFFECT OF PITUITARY ADRENOCORTICOTROPIC HORMONE (ACTH) ON DISSEMINATED LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS

Abstract

SINCE Hench and his co-workers¹ described the dramatic effect of cortisone and pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone, or ACTH, on patients with rheumatoid arthritis, interest in the effect of these substances on the "mesenchymal diseases" has mounted. Independent reports by Boland and Headley in Los Angeles,² Thorn in Boston³ and Ragan and co-workers in New York⁴ amply confirmed that there are beneficial effects observed in rheumatoid patients. Only scattered reports from Hench,¹ Thorn,³ Grace⁵ and others⁶ to the time of writing indicated beneficial results from this therapy in other members of the group of connective tissue disorders which includes rheumatic fever, scleroderma, dermatomyositis, periarteritis nodosa and disseminated lupus erythematosus. This report deals with 3 patients with disseminated lupus, erythematosus, observed on the medical service of the Presbyterian Hospital, who were treated with ACTH. Experimental work conducted in an effort to explain