[The function of the hypophyseo-adrenal system in patients with disseminated lupus erythematosus]

Radioimmunologic examination of the hypophyseo-adrenal system in patients suffering from disseminated lupus erythematosus with insulin glycemia has revealed changes in the system's reactivity, confirmed by a slow reduction of the blood plasma corticotropin and somatotropin, reaching the initial values by the 120th minute after insulin injection. Decreased functional activity of the adrenal cortex was revealed, manifesting by a slow rise of the blood plasma hydrocortisone by the 30th minute after insulin injection. The examined reserve potentials of the hypophyseo-adrenal system indicate not so much an impairment of the corticotropin secretion central mechanisms, but mostly a decrease of the adrenocortical functional activity.