TY - JOUR T1 - EFfects of pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone (acth) therapy AU - ELKINTON JR, HUNT AD, Jr., GODFREY LL, McCRORY WW, ROGERSON AG, STOKES JJ, Jr. Y1 - 1949/12/31 N1 - 10.1001/jama.1949.02910180001001 JO - Journal of the American Medical Association SP - 1273 EP - 1279 VL - 141 IS - 18 N2 - The discovery by Hench and co-workers1 of 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.2 Since 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-workers3 have 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 SN - 0002-9955 M3 - doi: 10.1001/jama.1949.02910180001001 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1949.02910180001001 ER -