Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Salivary cortisol test for diagnosing hypercortisolism in dogs
By Wenger-Riggenbach, B et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2010·Clinic for Small Animal Internal Medicine·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Salivary cortisol concentrations in healthy dogs and dogs with hypercortisolism.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of healthy dogs and dogs diagnosed with hypercortisolism (a condition causing high cortisol levels) had their salivary cortisol levels tested to see if this could be a good alternative to blood tests. The results showed that dogs with hypercortisolism had much higher salivary cortisol levels compared to healthy dogs. However, collecting enough saliva for testing was challenging, as many samples could not be obtained. While the test accurately measured cortisol levels, the need for a large saliva sample limits its practical use in diagnosing this condition in dogs.
People also search for: dog high cortisol symptoms · hypercortisolism in dogs · dog saliva cortisol test
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Measurement of salivary cortisol is a useful diagnostic test for hypercortisolism (HC) in humans. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether measurement of salivary cortisol concentration is a practical alternative to plasma cortisol to diagnose HC, to validate the use of salivary cortisol, and to examine the effect of time of day and sampling location on salivary cortisol. ANIMALS: Thirty healthy dogs and 6 dogs with HC. METHODS: Prospective, observational clinical trial including healthy volunteer dogs and dogs newly diagnosed with HC. Salivary and plasma cortisol concentrations were measured with an immunoassay analyzer. Intra- and interassay variability, linearity, and correlation between salivary and plasma cortisol concentrations were determined. RESULTS: The required 300 microL of saliva could not be obtained in 88/326 samples from healthy dogs and in 15/30 samples from dogs with HC. The intra-assay variability for measurement of salivary cortisol was 5-17.7%, the interassay variability 8.5 and 17.3%, and the observed to expected ratio 89-125%. The correlation (r) between salivary and plasma cortisol was 0.98. The time of day and location of collection did not affect salivary cortisol concentrations. Dogs with HC had significantly higher salivary cortisol values than healthy dogs (10.2 +/- 7.3 nmol/L versus 1.54 +/- 0.97 nmol/L; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: The ROCHE Elecsys immunoassay analyzer correctly measured salivary cortisol in dogs. However, a broad clinical application of the method seems limited, because of the large sample volume required.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20384959/