ACTH AND CORTISONE IN ACTIVE INFECTIONS

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Abstract
WITH the increasing availability of cortisone and pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), it is almost inevitable that practically every disease process encountered by the practicing physician will be treated with these new agents. Because of the increased feeling of well-being and prompt drop in temperature and sedimentation rate induced in febrile patients, many physicians will be tempted to treat most infectious diseases by these methods. Numerous reports by reliable investigators indicate that in most instances the total course and complications of many infections are not favorably influenced by administration of cortisone and ACTH. Indeed, these agents may have a deleterious effect. At the ACTH conference in Chicago in October 1949, Finland and his associates1 reported cases of viral and pneumococcic pneumonia in which the patients experienced a sharp drop in temperature and felt better almost immediately on administration of ACTH. However, in the patient with viral pneumonia, the temperature rose again

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