Assessing dehydroepiandrosterone in saliva: a simple radioimmunoassay for use in studies of children, adolescents and adults

While salivary assays for some hormones are widely used, the availability o f assays for salivary DHEA is limited. By adapting a commercially available radioimmunoassay serum kit, we developed a reliable, efficient and sensiti ve measure of DHEA in saliva that does not require separation or extraction . The minimum detection limit was 4.0 pg/ml. Intra-assay coefficients of va riation (CV%) were on average 4.05, and inter-assay CVs averaged 9.70. Meth od accuracy, determined by spike recovery, and linearity, determined by ser ial dilution, averaged 99.55 and 92.03%. Levels in matched serum and saliva samples showed strong linear relationships for adult males and females. Sp ecific guidelines are developed for sample collection, storage, and prepara tion procedures. Reference ranges for salivary DHEA levels are provided for 64 children ages 8-11, 96 adolescents ages 12-17 and 48 adults ages 30-45. Salivary DHEA levels are shown to reflect developmental, gender and diurna l differences. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.