Establishment of Reference Ranges for Cortisol in Neonates, Infants, Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Summary:Cortisol was determined in the sera of 687 normal, healthy probands between the ages of 5 days and 18 years (neonates, infants, children and adolescents), using a fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA) on the TDx from Abbott Laboratories. The proband collective was divided into 9 age groups and each group into males and females. In accordance with the recommendations of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry, the 95% scatter range was taken as the reference range. Only a few reference groups showed a normal Gaussian distribution. In addition to the 50th percentile, the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles were determined for all reference groups. Minimal and maximal values were also determined. The U-test of Mann & Whitney was used to test for significant differences between the individual reference groups. Groups showing no significant differences were combined, and reference ranges were finally calculated for eortisol in the serum of normal, healthy neonates, infants, children and adolescents. The serum eortisol concentration showed a significant increase with age. In the 14 -15 years age group, there was also a significant difference between males and females. IntroductionThe aim of the investigation was:

Gender-Specific Alterations in Salivary Cortisol Levels in Pubertal Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection Offspring

“…We found a difference in salivary cortisol levels between males and females with lower cortisol levels in males, as was reported in the 14-15 years age group in the large study by Jonetz-Mentzel and Wiedemann [30]. Age was not related to early morning cortisol in our study, which is expected given the narrow age-range of our study population.…”

Morning Serum Basal Cortisol Levels Are Affected by Age and Pubertal Maturation in School-Aged Children and Adolescents

“…It was previously shown that diurnal salivary cortisol levels increase during middle childhood and adolescence [21] . Studies of an adolescent sample of 229 boys and 181 girls who were assessed consecutively at the mean ages of 15.0 (SD = 0.4), 16.0 (SD = 0.4) and 17.0 (SD = 0.4) years showed a positive correlation between salivary cortisol awakening and age progress [22,23] . In the present study, we showed that the cortisol levels increased with age from 4 to 19 years for both boys and girls.…”

“…The development of the HPA axis extends from childhood through adolescence, leading to different hormonal secretion patterns among prepubertal and postpubertal children, adolescents and adults [14] . An increment in cortisol levels has been linked to age and puberty progression [15][16][17] . Cortisol values show a gender differentiation in the final pubertal maturation stages [18,19] .…”

Seizure occurrence and the circadian rhythm of cortisol: a systematic review

“…The circadian cortisol rhythm in children develops between 1 month and 2 years of age [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Although interindividual variability in cortisol levels has been related to age or pubertal status [24,27,28], the overall circadian pattern is very robust [25,29]. Therefore, data of children and adults were compared to the same cortisol curve obtained from Weitzman et al [30].…”