On the Determination of 17-Ketogenic Steroids in Urine

Since 1931, when Perla & Marmorston-Gottesman demonstrated the presence of an adrenocortical-like substances in benzene extracts of human urine, numerous biological and chemical methods for the quantitative assay of adrenocortical hormones in the blood and for their metabolites in the urine have been used. The chemical assays are based on widely different principles, e. g. the reducing properties of the compounds, the liberation of 1 7-ketosteroids or formaldehyde by oxidation and the reaction with phenylhydrazin. The methods used for the assay of adrenocortical steroids and their urinary excretion products are often designated as 'corticoid analyses'. Although more than 50 per cent of the total neutral 17-ketosteroids (17-KS) in the urine of normal males and a still higher percentage in the urine of females are metabolites of the adrenocortical hormones, the 17-KS test is of limited value as a means of evaluating the adrenocortical function. Thus it is well-known that patients