title: Determination of dexamethasone in saliva.
abstract: We conducted experiments to demonstrate that the determination of dexamethasone in saliva is a valuable tool to assess dexamethasone concentrations in the body after administration of this synthetic corticosteroid. After extraction of saliva, a RIA involving highly specific commercially available antibodies was established and evaluated. This RIA was easy to conduct, reliable, and sensitive enough to measure dexamethasone until approximately 24 h after oral administration of 1 mg per 70 kg of body weight. On the morning after the administration, the mean concentration in saliva was 540 pmol/L. Over a large range (10(3)-10(6) pmol/L), plasma concentrations correlated very well with salivary concentrations; plasma contained six times more dexamethasone than saliva.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, University Hospital, Utrecht, The Netherlands. j.thijssen@lab.azu.nl
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Thijssen
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Gispen-de Wied
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: van Heeswijk
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Veeman
mesh_terms: D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D011863:Radioimmunoassay / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D003907:Dexamethasone