Clinical Chemistry, Vol 15, 237-247, Copyright © 1969 by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry

Altered Pathways of Urinary Corticosteroid Excretion in Liver Disease Studied by a Clinical Laboratory Method

¹ Metabolism Laboratory, Providence Hospital, Washington, D. C. 20017.

A method of sequential extraction of -glucuronidase-hydrolyzed urine, which permits the assessment of alternative pathways of corticosteroid excretion, was employed to study urine samples from normal subjects and from patients with hepatic cirrhosis. In patients with hepatic cirrhosis there is a decrease in the excretion of methylene dichloride-soluble 17-hydroxycorticosteroids; this decrease is due to significantly lower levels of tetrahydrocortisone, with moderately low levels of tetrahydrocortisol. A significant increase was observed in the levels of 17-OH,20,21-glycols, confined mainly to cortols in the urine of patients with cirrhosis; a less marked increase in this fraction was also observed in patients with fatty metamorphosis of the liver. Urinary 17-ketosteroids were decreased in patients with hepatic cirrhosis. The intravenous infusion of adrenocorticotropin to normal subjects was followed by increased 17-hydroxycorticosteroids in all solvent fractions of the urine. In patients with hepatic cirrhosis similarly treated, there was no significant rise in the level of 17-hydroxycorticosteroids extracted with methylene dichloride, but significant increases in polar 17-hydroxycorticosteroids were found. The relative magnitudes of the alternate pathways of corticosteroid excretion were determined by calculation of the ratios of (1) total ketols to total glycols, (2) polar ketols to total glycols, and (3) less polar ketols to polar ketols; it was shown that in hepatic cirrhosis there are significant alterations in the excretory pathways of cortisol metabolites, with relative decreases in the excretion as tetrahydrocortisone and increases in the excretion as cortols. Based on these data it is clear that values of routine 17-hydroxycorticosteroid and 17-ketosteroid excretion should be evaluated carefully as to whether they represent abnormal adrenal function or alterations in the peripheral metabolism of cortisol. The method is sufficiently simple to be employed in the clinical laboratory.