Circadian characteristics of urinary epinephrine and norepinephrine from healthy young women in Japan and U.S.A.

Clinically healthy diurnally active young adult women were studied during the same season (March) at the Universities of Kyushu (Fukuoka City, Japan) and of Minnesota (Minneapolis, U.S.A.), under comparable conditions, except that the habitual diets were not changed. The subjects (20 Japanese and 16 Americans of mixed Caucasian background) were studied over a single 24-hr span. Urine was collected at 4-hr intervals. A circadian rhythm in total urinary norepinephrine excretion showed similar characteristics in Japanese and Americans. In epinephrine excretion, the Japanese women showed a statistically significantly higher amplitude with higher peak values, but no statistically significant difference in the rhythm-adjusted mean. This intergroup difference is strictly time dependent; it does not come to the fore in urine samples covering the nocturnal rest span of the subjects.