RELIABILITY OF SALIVARY TESTOSTERONE MEASUREMENTS - A MULTICENTER EVALUATION

The reliability of salivary testosterone assays was evaluated by nine laboratories in four countries, Each laboratory used its own RIA proce dures to assay samples from a set of 100 male and 100 female subjects. Agreement among the laboratories on mean scores was within the range reported by Read (Ann N Y Acad Sci 1993;694: 161-76), Overall agreemen t on individual scores, as indicated by the intraclass correlation coe fficient computed within subjects across laboratories, was r = 0.87 fo r men and r = 0.78 for women, Mean agreement between each laboratory a nd the combined set of all other laboratories (via fisher's Z-transfor mation) was r = 0.61 for men and r = 0.58 for women, We take these lat ter values to be the best estimates of the average reliability of labo ratories in their ordering of individual samples.