THE CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ESTIMATIONS OF ALDOSTERONE

Abstract

A proper appraisal of the clinical significance of estimations of aldosterone must depend on a knowledge of its secretion and metabolism and the mode of transport, including renal clearance, of the hormone and its metabolites. The object of this paper will be to review this field and to illustrate particularly by examples from the studies of the authors and their collaborators in normal and pregnant subjects. Recently, teams from the Worcester Foundation and the Montreal Children's Hospital have prepared appreciable quantities of (7-3H) aldosterone of about 20μc/μg specific activity. Using this material, which is in many ways more suitable than that previously used, a reinvestigation of some of the problems will be described and it is hoped that the simple methods which have been evolved will be of general application particularly in view of the availability of this tritiated aldosterone. One of the most important urinary metabolites of