THE RESPONSE OF PATIENTS WITH BRONCHIAL ASTHMA TO EPINEPHRINE AND TO ADRENOCORTICOTROPIC HORMONE

Abstract

DURING the past decade several authors have suspected that endocrine regulations participate in the allergic syndrome. Rackemann (1) in particular, emphasized the importance of nonspecific factors in the etiology of bronchial asthma and presented evidence for adrenal cortical deficiencies in 1 isolated case. He suggested that bronchial asthma might be one of the “diseases of adaptation” characterized by Selye (2).

In order to evaluate further the significance of their findings, clinical, metabolic and hematologic changes were followed in patients with bronchial asthma before, during, and after therapy with epinephrine, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), and ACTH combined with ascorbic acid. Epinephrine and ACTH were employed in order to study the effect of compounds acting at various levels of the pituitary-adrenal axis. Ascorbic acid was given for two reasons: first, to insure that, in all stages of the experiment, sufficient Vitamin C would be available to allow for synthesis of adrenal cortical hormone; and second, to study the effect of large doses of Vitamin C on adrenal cortical mechanisms in man, since Dugal and Thérien (3) had observed that ascorbic acid prevented the typical enlargement of the adrenal in animals under stress.