1955 Volume 44 Issue 3 Pages 155-162
It was presumed from many articles that the effects of hypophyseal adrenocortical hormones on blood sugar might change according to the experimental animals or in the case of human beings, by the existance of disturbances in carbohydrate metabolism. The authors have made an attempt to observe the changes in blood sugar for six hours after administration of these hormones to 55 diabetic patients in the fasting. The results obatined were as follows;
(1) The effect of these hormones on blood sugar in diabetic patients could be classified in to three types: a) Falling type b) Rising type and c) Fluctuating type.
(2) In most of these diabetic patients cortisone had a falling effect upon blood sugar and in no case was the effect one of rising.
(3) The observation of the relation between types of diabetes and that of blood sugar curves after the injection of these hormones led us to the conclusion that no characteristic type of blood sugar curves among diabetic disease types were seen after injection of DCA with ascorbic acid, that after injection ACTH, there was an anti-insulin effect in extra-pancreatic diabetes, and a remarkable insulin effect in polyglandular diabetes respectively. On the other hand, cortisone, after injection, showed a remarkable insulin effect upon extrapancreatic diabetes. The authors believe that these characteristic types of blood sugar effects of ACTH and cortisone on diabetic patients will be available for distinguishing the types of diabetes.
