Cortisone and A.C.T.H. in Treatment of Non-rheumatic Conditions

Since cortisone and A.C.T.H. were made available in this country in 1951, 78 patients have been treated with these drugs at the General Infirmary at Leeds. In no case has the decision to start the treatment rested on conditions other than therapeutic indication, so that our experience, though fairly broadly based, has been gained more from individual needs than from research interest. In non-rheumatic conditions the results obtained seem valuable enough to allow of an interim report on our conclusions. Patients in this group have been submitted to treatment not only where it was felt that cortisone or A.C.T.H. offered the best hope of improvement, but also in an attempt to elucidate their various and varying effects in disease processes. Due weight has been afforded these aims in the allocation of cortisone or A.C.T.H. for individual patient treatment, applications for the drugs being submitted to the cortisone committee at the infirmary, one of us (S. J. H.) acting as secretary to this panel. This report summarizes the results and experience gained in the non-rheumatic diseases. Fourteen patients have been observed with disorders of the blood and blood-forming organs; 16 patients have been treated for disease or dysfunction of the endocrine glands; and in a third, miscellaneous, group the effect of treatment has been studied in two patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension, in two patients presenting a nephrotic syndrome, and in nine patients suffering from asthma. No attempt has been made to review the literature, since this is thought to fall outside the scope and intention of a report which deals, in the main, with the routine treatment of problems common to a general teaching hospital.