Corticotropin in the Treatment of Tuberculosis

Historical Introduction Throughout the field of medicine, the use of corticotropin and the corticosteroid hormones has been controversial. This has especially been true in tuberculosis. The history of the use of the hormones in this disease falls into three phases. During the first phase, the hormones were used without any antituberculous therapy. This resulted in spread of active disease and reactivation of quiescent disease in tuberculous patients and the appearance of fresh disease in nontuberculous patients. This phase ended with the publication of the report of the Committee on Therapy of the American Trudeau Society (1952), which virtually placed an interdiction on the use of these hormones in tuberculosis. During the second phase, they were little used, especially in the United States. In Europe, some critically ill patients were treated with a combination of steroid hormones and antituberculous chemotherapy. Later, large numbers of patients treated with this combination were reported