PLASMA CORTICOSTERONE AND HYDROCORTISONE LEVELS IN MAN

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Abstract
CORTICOSTERONE and hydrocortisone have been demonstrated to be present in human adrenal vein blood (1) and adrenal gland perfusates (2). Selective methods for quantitation of plasma hydrocortisone levels in peripheral blood have been described (3, 4) and their specificity demonstrated (5, 6). Methods have been proposed for the determination of “corticosterone-like” material in the plasma; however, data have not been available on either the specificity or quantitative validity (accuracy and precision) of these procedures. Recently, a specific method has been described for the assay of corticosterone in the peripheral blood of man (7). This method utilizes the principle of isotope dilution to correct for losses of steroid during the extraction and chromatography processes, and the purified sample of corticosterone is assayed by a modification of the fluorescence method of Sweat (8). With this method, it is possible to detect 0.2 μg. of corticosterone per 100 ml. of plasma.