Table 1.
Steroid compounds measured in urine.
Fig 1.
Pathways of human steroid hormone biosynthesis.
Pathways from multiple steroid hormone producing cell types are combined to provide an overall view about the 40 urinary steroid metabolites measured in this study and their biosynthesis processes. Steroid groups are highlighted by colored background as indicated and enzyme activities are displayed in blue color. Abbreviations: DHEA: Dehydroepiandrosterone. The OH in enzyme names indicates a hydroxylase, e.g. 17α-OH: 17α-hydroxylase. The OH in steroid names indicates a hydroxyl group, e.g. 17-OH-pregnanolone: 17-hydroxy-pregnanolone. DH: dihydro; TH: tetrahydro; HSD: hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase; POR: P450 oxidoreductase; Cyt b5: Cytochrome b5; 5α-R: 5α-reductase; 5β-R: 5β-reductase.
Table 2.
Reference intervals for 40 steroid metabolites in 24-hour urine in men.
Table 3.
Reference intervals for 40 steroid metabolites in 24-hour urine in women.
Fig 2.
Overview about day and nighttime steroid hormone metabolite excretion in women and men.
Day and night time excretion values of urinary steroid metabolites in μg/hour were compared by Wilcoxon signed-rank test separately for men and women. Test results are indicated by coloured boxes: a red colour indicates higher excretion values during the day compared to night time, a green colour indicates lower excretion values during the day compared to night time and a yellow colour indicates no statistically significant difference. A white colour indicates that the metabolite has not been measured in the study. The left half of each box represents the test result indicated by colour for women and the right half for men as shown in the legend. Abbreviations: DHEA: Dehydroepiandrosterone. The OH in steroid names indicates a hydroxyl group, e.g. 17-OH-pregnanolone: 17-hydroxy-pregnanolone. DH: dihydro; TH: tetrahydro.