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Clinical Chemistry, Vol 32, 808-810, Copyright © 1986 by American Association for Clinical Chemistry
M Schoneshofer, B Weber, W Oelkers, K Nahoul and F Mantero
Using liquid chromatography, we estimated the urinary excretion of 20 alpha-dihydrocortisol (20-DH) and urinary free cortisol (UFC) in normal subjects and in 40 patients with Cushing's syndrome of different etiologies. The median normal excretion rate (nmol/24 h) was 174 for 20- DH and 68 for UFC, the 20-DH/UFC ratio thus being 2.55. For patients with Cushing's syndrome, the excretion rate was 1798 for 20-DH and 298 for UFC, the ratio 6.03. We evaluated the effect of acute stimulation of adrenal secretion on 20-DH and UFC by administering corticotropin to six normal subjects. After such stimulation, the excretion rate was 566 for 20-DH and 1238 for UFC (ratio 0.45). Whereas 20-DH excretion rate exceeded the normal range in all patients, six patients had normal or even below-normal values for UFC excretion. Evidently, measurement of urinary 20-DH is a better test for chronic hypercorticoidism than is measurement of urinary UFC, and chronic hypercorticoidism can be differentiated from the acute state by the 20-DH/UFC ratio.
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G. Morineau, J. Gosling, M.-C. Patricot, H. Soliman, P. Boudou, A. A. Halnak, G. Le Brun, J.-L. Brerault, R. Julien, J.-M. Villette, et al. Convenient chromatographic prepurification step before measurement of urinary cortisol by radioimmunoassay Clin. Chem., May 1, 1997; 43(5): 786 - 793. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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