Growth hormone and cortisol in serum and saliva

Salivary diagnosis is a developing area in clinical chemistry and dentistry . Cortisol analyses from saliva have been used in pediatric practice and as doping tests. Growth hormone (hGH), also a stress hormone, has not been an alyzed from saliva. We studied the serum and saliva of 51 healthy subjects. The samples were taken at 8:00 in the morning after 12 h fasting. Cortisol concentrations were analyzed using RIA An immunoradiometric assay was appl ied for analyzing serum and salivary hGH. The validity of this method devel oped in our laboratory was found to be good. The results showed correlation of salivary cortisol with that of serum (r = 0.47, P < 0.001). Salivary hG H concentrations were 1000-fold lower than the respective values in serum, but a clear correlation was found between salivary and serum hGH levels (r = 0.59, P< 0.001).