what is endo looking for with this test?

[chasingtime]

any idea what endo is looking for with this 24 hour urine test? Thanks,

5-HIAA, Cathecholamines, Metanepherines, Creatinine.
.

[zkt]

Creatine is related to how well the kidneys are doing their job. Although the creatine tests I`m familiar with are serum tests. Assume it can be tested for in urine. Have to look the others up. Stick `em in google and see what pops up.
or herehttp://www.questdiagnostics.com/hcp/...rino logy.htm

[jawbone]

kidney function and adrenal status.

[chasingtime]

reason i ask is cause ive been cold sweating ever since castration 8 years ago and my endo is finally looking beyond quicky blood tests and sending me home telling me everything is ok. he mentioned something about adrenal glands this time and id like to kick him in the balls if this was my problem all these years. my symptoms of cold sweats has never stopped and it has really taken a toll on my life. does anyone have any thoughts on what could be wrong with my adrenal glands and if this test is thorough and what it might reveal?

[jawbone]

well I am not qualified to really help here but if you were castrated I would still look at my TOTAL E levels. I would think that they could be high or certainly your E/Androgen ratio too high. After all the adrenals put out androgens too whic are converted by aromatase to E and its sunvarieties as well.

[love_en]

My internal medicine doctor ran the exact same test when he noticed my PVC's and tachycardia. This set of tests is to screen for pheochromocytoma. An adrenal tumor that produces too much epinepherine and norepinepherine. He was close. My actual problem is adrenal insufficiency. As long as I am getting enough salt and cortisone, no more PVC's or tachycardia.

[Normandy]

What would an extremely high urinary creatine level indicate?
Assuming one had in-range serum creatine.

I can understand a reading of low urinary creatine is suspicious of kidney problems, but a high urinary creatine?






-- Normandy

[chasingtime]

Originally Posted by love_en

My internal medicine doctor ran the exact same test when he noticed my PVC's and tachycardia. This set of tests is to screen for pheochromocytoma. An adrenal tumor that produces too much epinepherine and norepinepherine. He was close. My actual problem is adrenal insufficiency. As long as I am getting enough salt and cortisone, no more PVC's or tachycardia.

i would find it hard to believe that i would have a tumor immediately following castration and i think its adrenal insufficiency. salt sounds simple but how do you get cortisone. and what are PVC's or tachycardia? did you also have cold sweats and feel crappy? my t is 787 and e is 35...

one more thing, are you saying this test will not work for adrenal insufficiency?

[jawbone]

after reading what your T and E levels are, your doc is a good one. He/she is looking outside the box for answers.

[zkt]

Originally Posted by Normandy

What would an extremely high urinary creatine level indicate?
Assuming one had in-range serum creatine.

I can understand a reading of low urinary creatine is suspicious of kidney problems, but a high urinary creatine?
-- Normandy

The creatinine urine test measures the amount of creatinine in urine. together they are used to calc the creatinine clearance.
Calculation: 24 hour Creatinine Clearance
Formula
CrCl = (uCr x uV) / (sCr x 1440)
Annotation
Where CrCl is Creatinine clearance in ml/min
Where uCr is Urine Creatinine in mg/dl
Where sCr is Serum Creatinine in mg/dl
Where uV is 24 hour urine volume in ml
Where 1440 represents number of minutes in 24 hours
normal range ~= 90-139 mL/minute, and for an adult female is 80-125
The lower the Creatinine Clearance the worse the kidneys are doing at removing waste from the blood.
So the higher the ratio of Urine creatinine to serum creatinine the lower the Creatinine Clearance . Put simply, a extremely high urinary creatine level indicate in relation to plasma creatinine indicates renal insuffiency. Athough it might indicate too much protein in the diet or too much exercise.

[chasingtime]

i want to bump this to stay on thread topic...

i would find it hard to believe that i would have a tumor immediately following castration and i think its adrenal insufficiency. salt sounds simple but how do you get cortisone. and what are PVC's or tachycardia? did you also have cold sweats and feel crappy? my t is 787 and e is 35...

one more thing, are you saying this test will not work for adrenal insufficiency?

[zkt]

http://www.chronicfatigue.org/DiagTech%201%262.html
http://www.chronicfatigue.org/DiagTech%203%264.html

[love_en]

Originally Posted by chasingtime

i would find it hard to believe that i would have a tumor immediately following castration and i think its adrenal insufficiency. salt sounds simple but how do you get cortisone. and what are PVC's or tachycardia? did you also have cold sweats and feel crappy? my t is 787 and e is 35...

one more thing, are you saying this test will not work for adrenal insufficiency?

Cortisone is available from out of country. Getting it past Customs is another story. Usually, you need 25-35 mg hydrocortisone, 5 mg prednisone or 6 mg methyl prednisolone daily to replace cortisone. If you need a lot of salt, that means your aldosterone is low as well. Replacement for that is 0.05-0.1 mg fludrocortisone.

I never had cold sweats. But for the longest time, I started the day with severe nausea, had that after every meal, and warm weather would guarantee I would be sick. The only good days were ones that were cold and cloudy. BTW, I am in Honolulu, Hawaii, so it is hot and humid all year long. PVC's are a type of arrhythmia that is easily detected because of the long gaps between heart beats. Tachycardia is the medical term for a rapid pulse. Mine was 100 and my blood pressure was not normal as well 110/40.

If the doctor were looking for adrenal insufficiency, he would run an ACTH stimulation test and draw a serum ACTH before doing the stim test. The problem is, I have seen doctors interpret those tests in such a way that many cases of adrenal insufficiency are missed. If a doctor wanted to rule out adrenal insufficiency, he would question a serum cortisol that did not go above 50 units 60 minutes post ACTH injection. The reason I was not diagnosed and forced to self treat is the doctor decided that 37 units was adequate. Note that my base cortisol was 28 units. The other pitfall is some doctors expect doubling of cortisol post injection, however there the issue of a base reading as low as 10 or 15 units doubling to 20 or 30. I highly doubt, I would be in such bad shape if my cortisol did double and peak at 50+. What skews the tests towards these false negatives is what kind of people get stim tests. I have trouble believing a healthy man stims only to 37. Serum ACTH is good for helping to determine if your adrenal insufficiency is due to pituitary failure or adrenal gland failure. In pituitary failure, serum ACTH is low. For adrenal failure, ACTH is high. Reason is, ACTH is the hormone signal to the adrenals, as LH and FSH is to the testes.

[love_en]

Originally Posted by zkt

http://www.chronicfatigue.org/DiagTech%201%262.html
http://www.chronicfatigue.org/DiagTech%203%264.html

Unfortunately, many doctors deny the existance of adrenal fatigue. Cortisol is the physiological antagonist to catecholamines. BTW, my 24 urine tests for pheochromocytoma came out negative. At that point, the doctor was clueless. Best he could come up with was beta blockers to lower my heart rate. Treat symptoms instead of solving problems is the M.O. of most doctors.