Plasma corticotrophin releasing hormone, vasopressin, ACTH and cortisol responses to acute myocardial infarction

What Was Tested

Researchers studied ACTH (Corticotropin) and Vasopressin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The researchers assessed the magnitude and duration of the response of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal hormones to the stress of myocardial infarction, in the presence and absence of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors.

In particular, the researchers wished to analyse the interrelationships between peripheral plasma levels of corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH), vasopressin (AVP) and adrenocorticotrophin (ACTH), and also between ACTH and cortisol, during a prolonged medical stress.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 10 patients taking part.

PubMed tags the participants as both men and women.

Patients were randomly allocated to three different study groups according to a double blind procedure.

Reference ranges for all hormones were obtained from 40 or more volunteers from the electoral roll.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the ACTH (Corticotropin) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received ACTH (Corticotropin).

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the ACTH (Corticotropin) group a baseline to be compared against.

Peptide hormones were measured by radioimmunoassay, and cortisol by ELISA.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Adrenocorticotropic Hormone, Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors, Arginine Vasopressin, Captopril, Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone, Enalapril and Hydrocortisone.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of ACTH (Corticotropin) and Vasopressin in 10 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 12 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 1994 (Clinical endocrinology), a journal based in England.

More context: the ACTH (Corticotropin) compound page and the Vasopressin compound page, all human trials.