Posted by Elroy on June 19, 2005, at 20:42:24
In reply to Re: HPA Axis and Anti-Cortisol Therapy, posted by KaraS on June 19, 2005, at 17:58:53
24-hour Urinary Free Cortisol test gives an absolute as to your specifi daily totals. Blood cortisol tests are not good because you could be at a very low secretion point - or very high one - at the specific time that the blood is drawn.
The salivary tests - not the late night ones - but the generic ones - are better than the blood test IF you do the four times a day (every six hours) test. Still doesn't have the accuracy of the total 24-hr UFC for showing daily levels.
Also some people are "cyclical" Cushings so they might not actually over-secrete every day. Hence doing three spread out over 2 - 3 weeks.
If none are elevated then there's no reason to do the Late Night Salivary Cortisol tests. It is just primarily designed for separating out "real" Cushing's versus the Pseudo Cushing's cases...
Elroy
X
X
X>
> Hi Elroy,
>
> I just read that article the other day. Just a quick question: why do we need to take the three 24-hour UFC tests (that's Urinary Free Cortisol)? Can't we just get the salivary tests to begin with?
>
> K
poster:Elroy
thread:515432
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050617/msgs/515676.html