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

Steroid metabolites have been measured by capillary gas chromatography in t he urine of 38 children aged 3-6 years The children comprised three groups: those with asthma being treated with Terbutaline (13), children with asthm a but not undergoing treatment (17), and control children in hospital but f ree from endocrine diseases (8). There were significant (P < 0.05) differen ces between the amounts of steroids excreted by the different groups of chi ldren. Terbutaline therapy led to elevated levels of tetrahydrocortisone, a ndrostenediol, 11-ketopregnanetriol and a reduced ratio of androgen to cort isol metabolites compared with those for untreated asthmatic children. We a ssume 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 mi ght be explained as a result of the modification of the production of certa in glucocorticoids and androgen hormones.