Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: The low dose overnight dexamethasone suppression test (1 mg DST) is a sensitive screening test for Cushing’s syndrome. The specificity of the test can be improved by simultaneous analysis of plasma dexamethasone concentrations. A simple and accurate alternative to analysis of plasma cortisol is analysis of salivary cortisone or cortisol following 1 mg DST [1]. We evaluated if analysis of salivary dexamethasone following 1 mg DST could further improve the specif...

Context: Late-night salivary cortisol is a recommended screening method for Cushing’s syndrome. Liquorice intake may lead to falsely elevated salivary cortisol as glycyrrhizic acid inhibits the 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 induced conversion of cortisol to cortisone in the salivary glands. Furthermore, sample contamination by blood from the oral mucosa may also cause falsely elevated salivary cortisol levels. Salivary cortisone has been suggested to more ...