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Updated: May 10, 2026

Fecal Glucocorticoid Analysis: Non-invasive Adrenal Monitoring in Equids
Published on: April 25, 2016
Absent adrenarche in children with hypopituitarism: a study based on urinary steroid metabolomics
Claudia Boettcher1, Michaela F Hartmann, Jan de Laffolie
1Department of General Paediatrics and Neonatology, Division of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology, Centre of Child and Adolescent Medicine, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany. Claudia.Boettcher@paediat.med.uni-giessen.de
Background:
Up to now, the regulation of adrenarche remains a myth although ACTH may possibly play an important role.
Methods:
Urinary steroid profiling by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to study non-invasively the adrenarchal steroid metabolome in 13 children aged 6-16 years with partial or complete hypopituitarism (HP) whose ACTH/cortisol axis was affected and compared it with 24 healthy age-matched controls. The sum of DHEA, 16α-hydroxy-DHEA and 3β,16α,17β-androstenetriol served as markers for adrenarche parameters (AP). The excretion rates of major urinary cortisol metabolites were also determined.
Results:
The excretion rates for AP were significantly lower for the HP subjects than for the controls (p < 0.001). After dividing the HP group into a subgroup treated with hydrocortisone (HC) and an HC-untreated subgroup, a significant difference for AP remained for each subgroup when compared to the control group (p < 0.001 and p = 0.045, respectively). Treatment with HC had no influence on AP.
Conclusion:
The data imply indirectly a significant contribution of ACTH to the regulation of adrenarche. Our results also signify important diagnostic information: absent adrenarche can be indicative of ACTH deficiency.
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