INSULIN-RESISTANT DIABETES PRECIPITATED BY CORTISONE AND REVERSED BY NITROGEN MUSTARD

Abstract

IT IS WELL known that certain adrenal cortex hormones have a profound effect on carbohydrate metabolism. Ingle¹has induced frank diabetes in normal rats with daily doses of 5 to 10 mg. of cortisone. Sprague and his associates²have contrasted the action of cortisone in subjects who had Addison's disease alone with its effect on patients who had coexisting diabetes and Addison's disease. In the former cortisone abolished the tendency toward development of hypoglycemia; in the latter cortisone greatly increased dextrose excretion. In nondiabetic subjects cortisone produced abnormal dextrose tolerance curves.² The following case history is reported because the administration of nitrogen mustard (methyl-<i>bis</i>[beta-chloroethyl] amine hydrochloride) reversed an insulinresistant diabetes which developed when cortisone was given to a diabetic patient. <h3>REPORT OF CASE</h3> M. Z., a 53 year old white married man, was first admitted to Memorial Hospital on March 16, 1950, with a diagnosis