HORMONE STUDIES IN A CASE OF ADRENOGENITALISM DUE TO NEOPLASM OF THE ADRENAL CORTEX

Abstract

THE occurrence of large amounts of androgen in the urine of humans with adrenogenitalism resulting from adrenal cortical neoplasia is well known (1). Little is known concerning the hormone content of the tumors themselves. Except for the report of Slot (2), who found in the tumor of a patient with adrenogenitalism a “ quantity of male and female hormone not more than in organs (for instance liver) of normal people,” the authors are not aware of any attempts to correlate the hormone content of the tumor with that of the urine. The present study consisted of hormonal analyses of urine before and after operation and of the tumor removed at operation from a 7-year-old female with adrenogenitalism. METHODS Urinary and tumor extract measurements were made by the following methods, appropriately modified wherever necessary in the case of the tumor extracts: 17-ketosteroids by the method of Drekter, Pearson, Bartczak and McGavack (3); corticosteroid by the method of Lloyd and Lobotsky (4); pregnanediol by the method of Guterman and Schroeder (5); biologically active androgen by the 1-day-old chick method of Franck et al. (6); gonadotropin by the method of Lloyd, Morley, Morrow, Lobotsky, and Hughes (7); and dehydroisoandrosterone by the method of Allen et al. (8) and by the Pettenkofer reaction as modified by Munson, Jones, Mc-Call, and Gallagher (9). Tumpr cholesterol was determined by a modification of the method of Schoeiiheimer and Sperry (10). Paper chromatography of the urinary and tumor extracts was carried out by Dr. W. S. Haines of the tJpjohn Company, employing a modification of the method of Zaffaroni, Burton, and Keutmann (11). Extraction of the tumor was performed by the method described subsequently, which was suggested by Dr. Haines.