RAPID TEST FOR ADRENOCORTICAL INSUFFICIENCY
PRELIMINARY REPORT
Martin Perlmutter, M.D., Brooklyn, N. Y.At the January, 1955, meeting of the New York Academy of Science on hydrocortisone, it was affirmed by Forsham and associates 1 that intravenously used hydrocortisone was useful in the treatment of operative and postoperative shock. In the ensuing discussion, as has been so often noted, it was stated that it would be desirable to assay the adrenal function of such patients before therapy was started; however, the precarious clinical state of the patients precludes any test that would delay the onset of therapy. Thus, it appeared that a test that would not delay specific corticoid therapy, that would be a satisfactory assay of adrenal status, and that could be completed in a few minutes would indeed be of great clinical value in evaluating which cases of operative and postoperative shock are due to adrenocortical hypofunction.Such