Urinary
steroid components were measured after
enzyme hydrolysis and methoxym-silyl derivatization by capillary gas chromatography in young women with
eating disorders. Using three internal standards, programmed temperature from 50 to 300 degrees C and flame ionization detection, on ULTRA-1 capillary column the separation of 28
steroid components is possible. Fifteen young women with different
eating disorders, i.e.
anorexia nervosa,
bulimia nervosa and bulimarexia (aged 16-28 years) and 15 healthy women (aged 22-26 years) collected 24-h urine. A significant decrease of
dehydroepiandrosterone (p<0.05) and a significant elevation of the stress marker allo-
tetrahydrocorticosterone (p<0.05) were observed in the patients with compared to the controls. Among the patients two groups were defined due to a significant difference in the content of the
cortisol metabolites compared to each other and to controls (p<0.01). The results confirm the role of
dehydroepiandrosterone in
eating disorders. The increased level of the stress marker allo-
tetrahydrocorticosterone refers to the involvement of stress in these diseases, but the relevance of
hormone alteration to the pathophysiology of
eating disorders remains to be elucidated. The reason of the differences in
cortisol metabolites levels in some patients needs further investigations.