Abstract:
Cortisol is the major glucocorticoid produced and secreted by the adrenal cortex, It affects the metabolism of protein, fat, and carbohydrate, to maintainance of human body homeostasis during stress, which triggered by both of external and internal factors. Severe decreased or elevated cortisol levels can seriously affect human life.
Nowadays, the blood analysis is the standard test to evaluate cortisol, but the process is complicated and it is a painful procedure. Salivary test and ES Teck are the alternative procedures to evaluate cortisol level. This study is the cross-sectional study which was carried out in 48 general, male and female volunteers, with the age between 20-50 years, at Mae Fah Luang university hospital. The results showed that all the procedures were significantly different with high correlation (r=0.778, p=<0.001). The sensitivity of salivary analysis showed sensitivity at 96.9, specitivity at 50.0, means the benefits of salivary analyzing for use as screening test for evaluate abnormal cortisol level, but cannot confirmed. The salivary test could be the alternative screening, while ES Teck, with low specificity and sensitivity, could not use alone for evaluate or confirm cortisol level.