Evaluation of a Salivary Cortisol ELISA Kit in a Critical Obstetrical Unit

Abstract

Background and Objective: In recent years the use of saliva samples for the diagnosis of several clinical entities has been constantly increasing. The aim of this study was to describe the correlation between salivary and serum cortisol levels with the bleeding volume in cases of obstetrical hemorrhage grades III-IV. Methodology: This was a pilot prospective cross-sectional study. Two groups were conformed, 1) Puerperal women with grade III-IV obstetric hemorrhage and (2) Healthy puerperal women. During the first 8 h of admission to the Obstetrical-ICU or Hospitalization Service, a blood and saliva samples for cortisol measures were taken simultaneously. Relationships between the measured variables were assessed using Spearman correlations. All tests were performed with the SPSS ver. 23 statistical software program (IBM SPSS Statistics Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). Results: Eight patients were included, 4 with hemorrhage (mean age 31 years, SE: 2) and 4 with healthy pregnancies (mean age 26 years, SE: 2.7). Within the subgroup of patients with hemorrhage, the Spearman correlation for saliva and serum cortisol was of 0.800 (p = 0.2). The negative correlation between salival cortisol and hemorrhage was high but without reaching statistical significance (r2 = -0.800, p<0.200). Conclusion: The saliva cortisol determination through an ELISA kit has a high correlation with serum cortisol in case of obstetric hemorrhage Grades III-IV which give a glimpse to think about a possible failure in the ACTH-cortisol axis.