Clinical endocrinology
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Clinical endocrinology · Dec 2004
A new less-invasive and more informative low-dose ACTH test: salivary steroids in response to intramuscular corticotrophin.
The intravenous low-dose ACTH test has been proposed as a sensitive tool to assess adrenal function through circulating steroids. The aims of this study were to: (a) find the minimal intramuscular ACTH dose that induced serum and salivary cortisol and aldosterone responses equivalent to those obtained after a pharmacological dose of ACTH; and (b) define the minimum normal salivary cortisol and aldosterone responses in healthy subjects to that dose of ACTH. We also compared the performances of the standard- and low-dose ACTH intramuscular tests to screen patients with known hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal impairments. ⋯ Adrenal function can be accurately investigated with simultaneous measurements of salivary cortisol and aldosterone in response to 25 microg of corticotrophin injected into the deltoid muscle. Our data suggest that this may become a useful and relatively noninvasive clinical tool to detect subclinical hypoadrenal states.