Clinical examination and urinary oestrogen assays in newborn children with congenital dislocation of the hip.

In 1961 Andr#{233}nand Borglin suggested that congenital dislocation of the hip could be the consequence ofabnormal oestrogen metabolism in the perinatal period. They studied oestrogen excretion in eleven newborn infants with dislocated hips and twenty-six control infants during the first three days of life. They found elevated levels of oestrone and oestradiol in the patients with dislocation. Furthermore, they observed that the recovery of administered oestradiol was higher in those with dislocated hips than in the control group during the first week of life. They concluded that an inborn error of oestrogen metabolism contributed to hip joint laxity and congenital dislocation. Aarskog, Stoa and Thorsen (1966) criticised the work of Andr#{233}n and Borglin (1961), pointing out that individual results reported for oestrone and oestradiol were at the lower limit of sensitivity of the assay method employed. Using techniques developed by St#{248}a and Thorsen (1962) and Thorsen, Stoa and Aarskog (1964) for the estimation of oestradiol and a fraction considered to represent the sum of the ring D a-ketolic oestrogens, Aarskog et al. (1966) assayed the urine of seven infants with congenital dislocation of the hip and four control subjects during the first three post-natal days. They found no difference in oestrogen excretion between the two groups. In view of these conflicting reports this study was undertaken to re-examine the subject.