Abstract
Urinary androstanediol measurement, often in association with other androgens, is commonly used to support the clinical diagnosis of idiopathic hirsutism. In addition, androgen excess has been shown to be the endocrine abnormality which characterizes patients with breast cancer. We recently developed a method for the measurement of urinary testosterone employing solid-phase extraction and HPLC purification before quantitative measurement by gas chromatography. In the present report we verify the feasibility of the method for the simultaneous measurement of 5α-androstane-3α,17β-diol and 5β-androstane-3α,17β-diol in addition to testosterone in the same urine sample. The mean recovery for the whole procedure was 89.8% for 5α-androstane-3α,17β-diol and 87.8% for 5β-androstane-3α, 17β-diol. The estimates of the coefficients of variation were 4.9% (95% confidence limits: 3.9–6.5%) and 3.9% (95% confidence limits: 3.1–5.2%), respectively. Accuracy was evaluated by standard addition and dilution assays and a linear relationship was found between expected and observed values (r2=0.997 for 5α-androstane-3α,17β-diol and r2=0.999 for 5β-androstane-3α,17β-diol). The method is rapid, effective and suitable for the measurement of testosterone, 5α-androstanediol and 5β-an-drostanediol in the same urine sample.