Abstract
The present report outlines this disease and gives the results of treatments in this department with special stress placed on the treatment of the infectious focus. Thirty one cases of this disease were observed here more than 6 months. Out of 22 cases which showed infectious foci at any rate, 18 received the treatment of the focus. And there out of these 18 cases, one had a decayed tooth removed, and 2 had chronic tonsillitis and received antibiotic therapy, were recovered, other 4 cases improved and the remaining 11 unchanged. Two out of 4 with untreated infectious foci improved, while the other 2 unchanged. Two cases, whom the presence or absence of the focus was not evidenced, and 7 without the focus all remained unchanged. This nearly agreed with the result we reported previously.
For this disease, the systemic administration of corticosteroids is efficacious. However, the presence of infectious focus has significant bearing on the disease, and when the steroid therapy is discontinued, it recurs without fail. Therefore, the oral steroid therapy is not preferred on this account. This disease is hardly curable, but we must endeavour to find the infectious focus and to take active treatment against it.
