The neutral steroid fractions in the urine of eleven patients suffering from various forms of liver disease with cholestasis and of ten healthy individuals were studied by glass capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The steroid conjugates in urine were enzymatically solvolysed, the liberated steroids extracted and transformed into the trimethylsilylether for measurements. The excretion rates of androstane and pregnane metabolites of patients with liver disease were far lower than those of healthy persons. The main compounds in the urine of the former were the bile alcohols 27 - nor - 3 alpha, 7 alpha, 12 alpha, 24 xi, 25 xi - pentahydroxy - 5 beta - cholestane and 3 alpha, 7 alpha, 12 alpha, 25 xi, 26 - pentahydroxy - 5 beta - cholestane. Our data suggest a correlation between the excretion rates of these bile alcohols and the serum levels of bilirubin. While the excretion rate of the two bile alcohols in the urine of healthy individuals was approximately 0.24 mg/24 h (0.6 mumol/24 h) a patient with a serum bilirubin of 841 mumol/l excreted 4 mg/24 h (9 mumol/24 h). The accumulation of bile alcohols described in this study possibly indicates alternative pathways of cholic acid formation in liver disease.

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The steroid fraction of hemofiltrate contains a large number of unknown steroids, which were separated by a combination of different chromatographic procedures and finally characterized by gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Besides different isomeric 3,16,17-trihydroxyandrostanes in a rather polar fraction a 3,16,17-trihydroxy-11-ketoandrostane was detected, obviously the first naturally occurring representative of 3,11,16,17-oxygen-tetrasubstituted androstanes.

Steroid metabolites enriched from urine, haemofiltrate, and CAPD-dialysate (Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis) were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and quantified by capillary gas chromatography. The study included twenty healthy controls, twenty-six non-dialysed uraemics, thirty-nine patients on regular dialysis treatment, and twenty-two allograft recipients. Compared to the 24 h urinary excretion rates of controls the excretion rates of androsterone and etiocholanolone were in the lower normal range up to significantly decreased in the body fluids of all patients, and those of the corticoid metabolites were also significantly decreased. 11-Oxygenated androstanolones in urine from non-dialysed uraemics correlated significantly decreased. 11-oxygenated androstano-levels and were significantly increased, but normal in haemofiltrate and CAPD-dialysate, while in urine of allograft recipients the values were significantly lower.

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