EFFECTS OF PITUITARY ADRENOCORTICOTROPIC HORMONE (ACTH) ON THE HYPERSENSITIVE STATE
- JOHN EAGER HOWARD, M.D.;
- A. McGEHEE HARVEY, M.D.;
- RICHARD A. CAREY, M.D.;
- WALTER L. WINKENWERDER, M.D.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
Rich and his co-workers noted that certain anatomic lesions in drug hypersensitivity and in periarteritis experimentally induced by horse serum bear a close resemblance to those of the rheumatic diseases.1 This observation led to speculation as to the possible role of hypersensitivity in the causation of rheumatic fever, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus and periarteritis nodosa. Therefore, when Hench and his group reported the dramatic effects of cortisone and pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in patients with these diseases it seemed possible that the clinical improvement might be due to some change in hypersensitivity induced by these agents. Accordingly, experiments were begun to test the effectiveness of pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone in patients with diseases clearly due to hypersensitive reactions.2 A brief review of our experience with 23 patients with asthma, 5 with serum disease type of reaction to penicillin, 2 with sympathetic ophthalmia and 2 with ophthalmic and skin sensitivity
Footnotes
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This work was supported in part by a contract between the Johns Hopkins University and the Office of Naval Research and in part by a research grant from the United States Public Health Service.
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Read in a Symposium on ACTH and Cortisone before the Section on Experimental Medicine and Therapeutics at the Ninety-Ninth Annual Session of the American Medical Association, San Francisco, June 28, 1950.
