Abstract
Summary
An analysis of the accumulated results indicates the following: 1. There is a statistically significant difference between ACTH and normal saline as related to induced eosinopenia. Furthermore, differences among brands are apparent with Brands No. 1,2, and 4 producing the more profound effects. 2. 17-Ketosteroid levels are slightly increased by all the brands and also by normal saline. Although Pincus(6) has been able to produce sharp hourly rises in urinary 17 ketosteroids under situations of induced stress in man, it seems that an intramuscular injection of 25 mg of ACTH is not capable of duplicating this, at least from urine specimens collected at these time intervals. 3. There is no direct correlation among the three tests performed, but there seems to be an inverse relationship between the biological assay in rats and the tests in humans. 4. Because of this variation between animal and human responses, and the results of other investigative work as referred to above, it seems to be questionable whether the present ascorbic acid depletion animal bio-assay is a completely satisfactory method of determining the degree of activity of ACTH in man.
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