We compared results obtained by (a) chemical (spectrophotometric) and competitive protein-binding assays for serum corticosteroids, and (b) competitive protein-binding and radioimmunoassay, with and without CCI-4 extraction, for serum cortisol. The two corticosteroid methods gave identical results. Radioimmunoassay with and without a CCI-4 extraction step gave identical results for cortisol. Co...

Currently, corticosteroids are the most potent anti-inflammatory drugs on the market. Here, we announce the draft genome sequence of the marine-derived Streptomyces sp. strain CNQ431, which produces cytokine inhibitors, termed splenocins, which display potent suppression of cytokine production at a comparable level to that of corticosteroids. The genome is approximately 498,750 bp with 72.03% G...

Meningoencephalomyelitis of unknown origin (MUO) is a heterogeneous group of overlapping central nervous system inflammatory diseases of unknown cause. This article highlights the current understanding of MUO and its phenotypic variants encountered in clinical practice. Diagnostic evaluation of presumptive MUO includes lesion distribution on magnetic resonance imaging and ruling out other acqui...

Many of the features of Cushing’s syndrome are those that would be expected to result from an oversupply of adrenal cortical hormones. Indeed, Albright (1) has attributed the development of this syndrome to overproduction by the adrenal cortex of the carbohydrate-active hormones (S hormone), while Kenyon (2) and Kepler and his associates (3) have explained some of the features of the syndrome, ...

Physical and emotional stresses are known to increase the production and secretion of glucocorticoids by the adrenal cortex in both humans and experimental animals. The urinary corticoid: creatinine (C:C) ratio is increasingly used as a measure of adrenocortical function. In this study we investigated whether a visit to a veterinary practice for vaccination, a visit to a referral clinic for ort...

With the Technical Assistance of INGA HJELT W HILE THE MECHANISM of action of the fohic acid antagonists is tsot at present clearly and fully uisderstood, there is evidence of a relationship between these drugs and the adrenal cortex. Higgiisstm observed hyperplasia of the adrenal glands with atrophy of the spleen and thymus its rats ots autopsy, followiisg the administration of A-Methopterits....

The time-honored, useful, and frequently applied laboratory test of clinical medicine-the white blood cell count-is acquiring new meaning through recent discoveries in the basic sciences of medicine. The observation by Dougherty and White,16"17'19 and by Reinhardt, Aron, and Li,58 of the dissolution of lymphocytes by the action of adrenocortical hormone provokes reinterpretation of a number of ...

By MARTIN C. ROSENTHAL, M.D.,* RICHARD H. SAUNDERS, M.D.,* LAWRENCE I. SCHWARTZ, M.D., LEDA ZANNO5, i vI.D., ENRIQUE PEREZ SANTIAGO, M.D. AND WILLIAM DAMESHEK, M.D. D URING THE PAST EIGHTEEN MONTHS, interest in the clinical use of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and cortisone has become quite general. For some time, the limited supply of these hormones, together with a lack of knowledge as t...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is an uncommon malignancy originating from cortex of adrenal gland. The most common pitfall in diagnosis of ACC is to distinguish it from pheochromocytoma. Here we report a 62-year-old hypertensive man with presentation of dyspnea. The laboratory data showed an increase in urine cortisol and renin with a mild increase in aldosterone, but decrease in adrenocorticot...