Determination of cortisol in serum, saliva and urine
Abstract
Cortisol is quantitatively the major glucocorticoid product of the adrenal cortex. The main reason to measure cortisol is to diagnose human diseases characterised by deficiency of adrenal steroid excretion in Addison's disease or overproduction in Cushing's syndrome (CS). In both cases a sensitive, accurate and reproducible assay of cortisol is required. Several methods have been described for the quantitative measurement of cortisol in both serum and urine. The most widely used methods in routine clinical laboratories are immunoassays (IA) and enzyme immunoassays (EIA), luminescence and fluorescence assays, which are available in numerous commercial kits and on automated platforms. However, there remains a number of problems in the so-called direct immunoassays if extraction and prepurification are not carried out before the assay. Recently, more specific chromatographic methods have been introduced, such as high pressure liquid chromatographic (HPLC) or liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometric assays (LC-MS/MS). The high specificity especially of LC-MS/MS facilitates reliable measurement of cortisol both in plasma, urine and saliva samples.
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Cortisol has been measured in human blood, serum, urine, saliva, hair, interstitial fluid, and most recently eccrine sweat.
“Cortisol has been measured in human blood,106 serum,107 urine,107 saliva,107,108 hair,109 interstitial fluid,110 and most recently eccrine sweat.111”
From Wearable sensors for monitoring the physiological and biochemical profile of the athlete (2019) · cites this paper as [107]
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- Authors
- Turpeinen, U., & Hämäläinen, E.
- Affiliations
- Helsinki University Hospital (FI)
- Corresponding author
- Turpeinen, Ursula
- ORCID
- Hämäläinen, Esa
- Venue
- Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2013-12
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 795-801
- ISSN
- 1521-690X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1975017332
- Cited by
- 214
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 1.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Adrenal Hormones and Disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Clinical Laboratory Practices and Quality Control
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Keywords
- cortisol measurement, Addison's disease, Cushing's syndrome, adrenal insufficiency, glucocorticoids, salivary cortisol, urinary cortisol, serum cortisol, immunoassay, enzyme immunoassay, LC-MS/MS, HPLC
- MeSH terms
- Addison Disease, Chromatography, Liquid, Cushing Syndrome, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Reference Values, Saliva, Tandem Mass Spectrometry
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