Salivary cortisol, cortisone and serum cortisol concentrations are related to age and body mass index in healthy children and young people.

BACKGROUND:Saliva is an ideal medium in which to measure cortisol in children. However, there are very few data reporting salivary cortisol or cortisone concentrations in healthy children since the introduction of liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC MS/MS) to routine laboratory practice. DESIGN:Early morning serum cortisol, salivary cortisol and cortisone were measured on fasting samples, and salivary hormones were measured in samples collected every 2 hours during waking hours, and 30 minutes after waking the following morning. PARTICIPANTS:43 healthy paediatric volunteers (19 female), median age 11.5 years, range 6.2 - 18.7, participated. RESULTS:Early morning serum cortisol (265nmol/L, 156 - 516) correlated strongly with salivary cortisol (4.7nmol/L, 1.1-14.6) and cortisone (28.8nmol/L, 11.7-56.6), p<0.0001 for both. Serum cortisol, salivary cortisol and salivary cortisone correlated directly with age (p