THE EFFECT OF STARVATION ON URINARY 17-KETOSTEROID EXCRETION*

Abstract

CHRONIC illness associated with malnutrition, debility and evidence of infection often leads to depression of urinary 17-ketosteroid values(1). Forbes et al. (2) report a rise in 17-ketosteroids following operations, fever or the sudden onset of an acute illness, followed by a decline after 12 to 48 hours which often reached subnormal levels. We have confirmed this in an unpublished study in a subject with induced fever in whom food intake was maintained unchanged. The numerous evidences, however, from studieson rats (3, 4) and dogs (5) that androgen production by the testes is reduced during inanition suggests that undernutrition alone may often contribute to the depression of 17-ketosteroid excretion in human disease. Accordingly the effects of starvation in three normal men and one obese woman were examined, together with those of relatively mild protein and caloric restriction in two normal men.