EFFECTS OF PITUITARY ADRENOCORTICOTROPIC HORMONE (ACTH) THERAPY

Abstract

The discovery by Hench and co-workers¹of the dramatic improvement in rheumatoid arthritis induced by the administration of certain steroids of the adrenal cortex and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) of the pituitary, has provided a clue to the pathogenesis of a wide variety of related diseases. These workers clearly established that 17-hydroxy-11-dehydrocorticosterone (Kendall's compound E, or cortisone), 17 hydroxy-corticosterone (compound F) and pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone produced immediate remissions in the disease, remissions which lasted as long as these substances were administered. Improvement was also obtained in patients with acute rheumatic fever.²Since this report appeared other investigators have confirmed these observations and widened the scope of disease states in which adrenocortical hormones are efficacious. Thorn and co-workers³have reported the successful use of pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone in 9 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 3 with rheumatic fever, 3 patients with disseminated lupus erythematosus and 1 with gout. Rheumatoid arthritis