Hormonal Preparations

Hormonal Preparations 

medications that contain hormones or their synthetic analogs, used in hormone therapy.

Hormonal preparations may contain natural hormones (prepared from the fresh or fresh-frozen glands of slaughter cattle and from the blood and urine of animals and man), synthetic hormone preparations and their derivatives, or the synthetic analogs of hormones (which differ in chemical structure from natural hormones but exert the same physiological effects).

Hormonal preparations of the pituitary (ACTH, ACTH-zinc phosphate, chorionic gonadotropin, serum gonadotropin, prolactin, intermedin, Pituitrin, and adiurecrinum) and the synthetic pituitary hormonal preparations of oxytocin and vasopressin are used for hormonal deficiency of the pituitary, adrenals, and gonads, as well as in collagenoses, allergies, and certain eye diseases.

Thyroidin, the hormonal preparation of the thyroid, is used to treat deficiency of thyroid function, obesity, and neuroses. Parathyroidin, the hormonal preparation of the parathyroids (obtained from the parathyroid glands of slaughter cattle), is used to treat various forms of tetany, spasmophilia, and allergic diseases.

The hormonal preparations of the pancreas include insulin and its derivatives (for example, zinc insulin and zinc-protamine insulin), which lower the sugar content of the blood and are used to treat diabetes mellitus. Also used as sugar-reducing medications in diabetes are the synthetic substitutes for insulin—Butamide, cyclamide, and chlorproma-zine. Lipocaic, used in liver diseases and atherosclerosis, is also one of the pancreatic hormone preparations.

The adrenocortical hormonal preparations are cortisone, hydrocortisone, and desoxycorticosterone and the synthetic analogs of cortisone and hydrocortisone, including prednisolone, prednisone, dexamethasone, and synalar. They are used in the treatment of rheumatism, infectious polyarthritis, bronchial asthma, infectious mononucleosis, neurodermati-tides, eczemas and other skin diseases, Addison’s disease, acute hormonal insufficiency of the adrenal cortex, hemolytic anemia, glomerulonephritis, and acute pancreatitis.

Hormonal preparations of the female sex hormones are divided into the estrogenic hormone preparations (folliculin [estrone], estradiol monobenzoate, estradiol dipropionate, ethyl estradiol, Sinestrol, diethylstilbestrol, dimestrol, Oc-toestrolum, and Sygethinum) and the gestagenic preparations (progesterone, hydroxyprogesterone capronate, and preg-nene). Estrogenic preparations are used in functional deficiency or complete absence of ovarian endocrine activity and in weak partial activity and cessation of lactation, as well as in treating cancer of the prostate gland in men. Gestagenic hormonal preparations are used in disturbances connected with deficiency of the corpus luteum.

Preparations of male sex hormones, or androgenic preparations (testosterone propionate, testosterone enanthate, methyltestosterone) possess the biological and therapeutic properties of the hormone testosterone, which is manufactured in the male gonads. The preparations are used in male gonadal deficiency, during the climacteric in both men and women, in vascular and nervous disturbances, and in acromegaly.

Hormonal preparations are used both in water or oil solution for subcutaneous and intramuscular injection and in the form of tablets and ointments. The specific activity of a hormonal preparation from animal stock is established by comparison with the activity of standard preparations (biological standardization) and is expressed in activity units (AU).

REFERENCES

Mashkovskii, M. D. Lekarstvennye sredstva, 6th ed., vol 1. Moscow, 1967.
Milku, Sh. Terapiia endokrinnykh zabolevanii, vol. 2. Bucharest, 1962. [Translated from Rumanian.]

P. A. SHAROV