Evidence suggesting the existence of a state of relative adrenal insufficiency in patients with Sydenham's chorea has been presented.1 Similarly, a state of relative adrenal insufficiency has been shown to exist in patients with active or inactive rheumatic fever.* Since corticotropin and cortisone have been reported to be efficacious in therapy of exudative rheumatic fever,† and since similar biochemical and physiological abnormalities occur in patients with both of these diseases, it seems logical that hormone therapy might be of value in chorea.
In the past four years several case reports on the use of corticotropin and cortisone in the treatment of Sydenham's chorea have appeared in the literature.‡ Results reported by these investigators have been widely divergent, some reporting favorably on hormone therapy, whereas others report that this form of therapy does not alter the clinical course of the disease. The purpose of this communication is to report the