THE FRIEDMAN TEST AND PITUITARY TUMOR

Excessive quantities of urinary prolan have been reported not only in cases of pregnancy (1, 2, 3), but also in the presence of such conditions as malignant chorionepitheliomata (4), hydatid mole (5), or in tumors which contain chorionic tissue, such as teratomata (6). Hirsch-Hoffman (7) reported 10 cases of pituitary disease, including unverified cases of tumor, in which the Aschheim-Zondek test gave positive findings. Such an excess has also been reported in the presence of migraine (8), hypogonadism (9) and other conditions. In this series, the Friedman test has been made in a selected group of 946 non-pregnant individuals and 209 positive reactions have been observed. Endocrine disease was suspected in each case in this group and this explains the large proportion of positive results. In 131 cases in the group, a clinical diagnosis of pituitary disease was made and excessive amounts of urinary prolan by means of this test were found in 59 of these cases. Among the cases diagnosed as pituitary disease,...