ACTION OF DIHYDROTACHYSTEROL IN CHRONIC PEMPHIGUS

Abstract

The use of dihydrotachysterol in the treatment of pemphigus was suggested as the result of three observations: (a) the beneficial effects occasionally observed in pemphigus from the administration of large amounts of viosterol, (b) the improvement induced by the administration of dihydrotachysterol in impetigo herpetiformis and (c) the serum calcium-raising property of dihydrotachysterol. Ludy and DeValin¹ in 1932 reported symptomatic improvement in 6 patients treated with large quantities of viosterol and with ultraviolet radiation. This observation has been confirmed by Tauber and Clarke,² by King and Hamilton³ and by us (unpublished data). Although the precise mode of action in pemphigus of massive doses of viosterol (100,000 to 500,000 U. S. P. units of vitamin D per day) is not known, it seems unlikely that it is the correction of an avitaminosis D, as Ludy and Drant⁴ assumed. If this explanation were valid, small amounts of viosterol