Urinary 17-ketosteroids in various endocrine disorders.

HE PURPOSE OF THE PRESENT REVIEW of the literature is an examination of the contemporary data on the clinical diagnostic value of the determination of the 17-ketosteroid content in the urine in various disorders of the endocrine glands. The basis of the chemical structure of the 17-ketosteroids is the perhydrocyclopentanophenanthrene ring. The 17-ketosteroids can be looked upon as derivatives of two hydrocarbons: androstane and etiocholane, which are distinguished from each other by the steric configuration around the fifth carbon atom. The 17-ketosteroids have a keto group at carbon atom number 17 of the given hydrocarbons. This makes possible their colorimetric determination by means of the Zimmerman color reaction (1951). At the present time, more than 48 isomers of the 17-ketosteroids are known. The most important of these, which are present in the