[Hydrolytic conditions of the conjugated steroids from human urine (author's transl)]

The hydrolisis of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate added to human urine was studied under several hydrolytic procedures. Enzymatic and acid hydrolysis with and without the previous removal of enzymic inhibitors present in the human urine were compared. The simple precipitation of inorganic ions with barium acetate before the enzymatic hydrolysis was considered an efficient procedure giving an 81% recovery of the added dehydroepiandrosterone. Since this procedure does not involve rearrangements in the steroid molecules, and because of its simplicity it is considered adequate for the determination of the urinary steroid excretion patterns in humans allowing the quantitation of some conjugates (16 alpha-hydroxy-dehydroepiandrosterone) otherwise not detectable because of its incomplete hydrolysis and extraction.