[Radioimmunological determination of ACTH and its clinical use]

Since radioimmunological methods have been introduced, it has become possible to measure the concentration of ACTH in human plasma directly. We report on first experiences with commercial testing sets. We proved the clinical usefulness of the determination of ACTH in the cases of 13 healthy adult subjects and 8 healthy children. Furthermore patients with evidence of primary adrenal insufficiency and with disturbances in the hypothalamicpituitary system were included in our investigations. The obtained values are in agreement with the known conception of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system.