Deoxycorticosterone Secretion Rates Before and During Metyrapone Administration in Normal Subjects

Abstract

Deoxycorticosterone (DOC) secretion rate and tetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone (THDOC) excretion rate determinations were made under basal conditions and during the second day of metyrapone administration in a group of normal subjects using DOC-4-¹⁴C. Bile was collected from a T-tube from a patient given DOC-4-¹⁴C following a cholecystectomy and complete external biliary drainage for cholelithiasis. Three consecutive 24-hr urine and stool samples were collected from the normal subjects and the patient with biliary drainage following the administration of DOC-4-¹⁴C. In 5 subjects the mean radioactivity excreted in the urine in the first 24 hr was 25% of the administered dose, and an additional 4.7 % was excreted in the subsequent 48 hr. A significant amount of the radioactivity was excreted in the stool. The 72-hr urine and stool together contained an average of 62.9 % of the administered dose of DOC-4-¹⁴C on the base line days and 56.8% on the second day of metyrapone. In the patient with complete external biliary drainage, the bile collected from the T-tube for a 72-hr period contained 43 % of the administered radioactivity, indicating that the radioactivity which would appear in the stool would reach the intestine via the biliary tract. Very small amounts of THDOC were excreted in the urine of these normal subjects. The secretion rate of DOC with the double isotope derivative method averaged 394.7±46.6 μg/24 hr on base line days and increased 125-fold under the influence of metyrapone.