Effect of Desoxycorticosterone Glucoside Upon Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism of Human Subjects 1

I NTRODUCTIONAn effect of steroidal hormones up)on cerebral metabolism was suggested by Selye's (1) observa- tionl that steroids possess anesthetic properties when administered to experimental animals.Gordan and Elliott (2) subsequently showed that cer- tain steroids inhibit glucose utilization by rat brain in vitro and that their comparative inhibitory activity parallels their reported anesthetic potency.These observations were confirmiie(d by Hayano, Schiller, and Dorfman (3).The p)ossibility that steroidal inhibition of cerebral oxidative processes may be a physiological occurrence was demonstrated by Eisenberg, Gordan, and Elliott (4, 5).