Effect of intramuscular injection of pituitary tissue in rheumatoid arthritis.

Pituitary gland implants from other than an identical twin cannot be expected to function in man, whether the source be man or animal, but may act as a temporary source of hormone because of their ACTH content. The gland also contains other hormones and may be better than ACTH because of the slow absorption of hormone. Favourable results have been reported by Edstrom (1950) and Edstrom and Thune (1951). We therefore decided to test the efficacy of pituitary implantation in patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, determining the ACTH content of the implant, the clinical changes, and the adrenal response compared with that of ACTH.