Spectrophotometric assay of plasma dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (D beta H) activity and fluorospectrophotometric assay of urine catecholamines (CA) were performed in 30 patients and 21 normal persons. According to TCM, the patients were divided into two groups, 16 cases of deficiency-cold syndrome (DCD), and 14 cases of deficiency-heat syndrome (DHD). The results showed that in the patients with DCD, the activity of D beta H and the levels of CA were lower than those of the normal, whereas the activity of D beta H and the levels of CA of the patients with DHD were higher than those of the normal (P less than 0.01, P less than 0.05). Variations of the involved visceral organs determined in the traditional way made no difference to the above-mentioned changes. D beta H and CA correlated significantly to each other. The authors also took the canonical correlation analysis to the cases, the result showed that the heat syndrome correlated with D beta H and CA positively. These results showed hyperfunctioning of the sympathetic-adrenomedullary system in DHD and hypofunctioning of this system in DCD.