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Show New Cortisone Treatment Cuts Cost for Arthritis Sufferers, Doctors Report Newark, N. J. What is proving to be a revolutionary new development develop-ment in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis was disclosed in a report just published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology. Five scientists discovered that when insulin, the drug used in diabetes, is given simultaneously with cortisone, very much smaller doses of cortisone than heretofore used mav be effective. This combination was reported to produce the same degree of relief in arthritis as when corti-' sons is used alone in the customary large doses. , , Hospital tests, under Schcring grant, brought good news for arthntics The new treatment reduces the quantity of the scarce new "miracle "mira-cle drug" used. Thus, the method enables the doctors to cut the cost per day for treating hospitalized arthritis patients with cortisone from $12 to as little as $3 each, the report said. Cortisone is the adrenal compound com-pound reported by Drs. Hench and Kendall, of the Mayo Clinic, a little more than a year ago as producing spectacular improvement improve-ment in rheumatoid arthritis. Its use in medicine has been handicapped, handi-capped, the scientists explained, by its poteiitial dangers and the extremely high cost of treatment. The principle of using insulin together with cortisone was developed de-veloped by Or. Edward Henderson, Hender-son, Director of the Clinical Research Re-search Division of Schering Corporation, Bloomfield, N.J., and by Dr. Marvin Weinberg, on the basis of animal and laboratory experiments conducted at the College of Physicians and Surgeons Sur-geons of Columbia University by a third member of the team, Dr. Harry Seneca. The research workers have stated that the new method does pot merely cut the cost of treatment treat-ment to one-half or less, but also offers a means'of avoiding some of the dangerous actions of the drug. In addition, it is said, the new method may bring the cost of treatment finally within reach of the majority of arthritis sufferers. Twelve patients with typical rheumatoid arthritis were hospitalized hospi-talized in the St. Barnabas Hospital Hospi-tal at Newark, N. J., for this study. Some were early cases and some were chronic of 20 years standing with far advanced arthritis. |