Hair Cortisol Measurement by an Automated Method

GONZALEZ, DIEGO; JACOBSEN, DARIO; IBAR, CAROLINA; PAVAN, CARLOS; MONTI, JOSÉ; FERNANDEZ MACHULSKY, NAHUEL; BALBI, AYELEN; FRITZLER, ANALY; JAMARDO, JUAN; REPETTO, ESTEBAN M.; BERG, GABRIELA; FABRE, BIBIANA

Scientific Reports

Springer Nature

Año: 2019 vol. 9

We present the development of the first procedure for hair cortisol measurement through an automatedmethod. Hair samples were obtained from 286 individuals. After cortisol extraction, samples weremeasured in a Siemens Immulite 2000 (Gwynedd, UK) automated chemoluminiscent immunoassayanalyzer. Normal reference values were obtained from hair cortisol levels measured in 213 healthyindividuals with low levels of stress. Hair cortisol concentration median was 55 pg/mg hair (2.5?97.5percentile (40?128)) in healthy individuals with low levels of stress and 250 pg/mg hair (range 182?520)in stressed individuals. No significant differences were observed in hair cortisol levels between subjectswith and without dye (40 (40?107) and 40 (40?155) pg/mg hair, respectively; p = 0.128). The novelprocedure presented here shows an adequate analytical performance.