Treatment of Acute Gouty Arthritis With Pituitary Adrenocorticotropic Hormone (Acth)

This report describes the striking beneficial results of therapy in 2 cases of acute gouty arthritis treated with single injections of pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). REPORT OF CASES Case 1.— N. Y., a white man aged 59, sought treatment June 8, 1945 because of recurring attacks of severe gouty arthritis of sixteen years' duration. The attacks, which had involved at various times the metatarsophalangeal joints of the big toes, the knees, wrists, elbows and ankles, would last several weeks to a month, subsiding completely without interval symptoms or permanent swelling or deformity of the joints. At the time of the initial examination the patient was having an attack of acute gouty arthritis characterized by inflammatory changes about the left ankle and the metatarsophalangeal joint of the left great toe. The diagnosis was confirmed by the elevated plasma uric acid of 8.12 mg. per hundred cubic centimeters and the characteristic roentgenographic