Capillary gas chromatography of urinary steroids of terbutaline-treated asthmatic children

Summary

Steroid metabolites have been measured by capillary gas chromatography in the urine of 38 children aged 3–6 years. The children comprised three groups: those with asthma being treated with Terbutaline (13), children with asthma but not undergoing treatment (17), and control children in hospital but free from endocrine diseases (8). There were significant (P<0.05) differences between the amounts of steroids excreted by the different groups of children. Terbutaline therapy led to elevated levels of tetrahydrocortisone, androstenediol, 11-ketopregnanetriol and a reduced ratio of androgen to cortisol metabolites compared with those for untreated asthmatic children. We assume that Terbutaline does not have a steroid-like mechanism of action but acts by modification of the activity of several adrenocortical enzymes. We suggest a hypothesis whereby the antiasthmatic effect of Terbutaline could not only be a connected with its well-known mechanism of action, but it might be explained as a result of the modification of the production of certain glucocorticoids and androgen hormones.