Urinary Steroid Chromatograms from Children

DURING a longitudinal investigation on the changes in urinary steroid profile with sexual maturation in healthy children, a new steroid-like substance, giving most of the well known steroid reactions, was found¹. Since then, the substance has appeared consistently in microgram quantities on urinary steroid chromatograms in our laboratory², running close to 11β-hydroxyandrosterone in the Bush B3 system³. Similar substances have been noted by other workers (Drs D. M. Cathro, C. C. Forsyth and J. Bertrand, personal communications). Children suffering from lipodystrophy, progeria and leucine-sensitive hypoglycaemia excreted this substance in larger quantities than the normals⁴.