Studies on Urinary Steroids of Men Born and Living at High Altitude.

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Abstract
The urinary steroids (17-ketosteroids and 17,21-dihydroxy-20-ketosteroids) of two groups of young, adult males were studied one group was formed of medical students born and living at sea level, and the other of men born 10,000 feet above sea level and having lived for more than a year in Morococha, Peru (14,900 feet). Without any medication no differences were found in urinary excretion of steroids between sea level and high altitude natives. The amount of the 100 mg. intravenously injected cortisol appearing in the urine in the following 12 hours, as Porter and Silber chromogens, was 27.9 mg/24 hr. in the high altitude group and 28.6 mg/24 hr. in the sea level group (P> 0.50). These results and the equivalence in percent of steroid conjugation suggested that the catabolism was the same in both groups. The similar steroid excretions reflected, therefore, similar production of cortisol by the adrenal cortex. Dexamethasone (2 mg intravenously every 12 hrs. for two days) decreased urinary excretion of steroid, but did not differentiate the sea level and high altitude groups. These findings showed the rates of production of cortisol of both groups were identical when endogenous ACTH was inhibited; and, therefore that the similarities between both groups were not promoted by ACTH stimulation but rather depended upon the adrenal cortices themselves.