SOME EFFECTS OF ADRENOCORTICOTROPIC HORMONE AND CORTISONE ON PULMONARY FUNCTION OF PATIENTS WITH OBSTRUCTIVE EMPHYSEMA

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Abstract
Pulmonary function was studied before and after admn. of ACTH and cortisone in 9 patients with various types of chronic lung diseases. Subjective and objective improvement, sometimes dramatic, occurred in those patients whose disease was secondary to, or complicated by, bronchiolar obstruction. This observation together with the pattern of change in pulmonary function, suggested that ACTH and cortisone exerted a sustained bronchodilating action. The mode of action may be a bronchodilating action by decreasing the reactivity of the bronchiolar musculature to allergens and by causing the subsidence of chronic inflammatory changes in the bronchial mucosa similar to the subsidence of such changes in the diseased nasal and sinus mucosa during ACTH and cortisone admn. The effects of these agents on the bronchial tree was greater than the action of conventional vasodilators in at least 2 patients with chronic obstructive emphysema.