title: [Clinical value of serum cortisol determination (a literature review)].
abstract: The generalization of the results of a considerable body of papers on the use of cortisol as an adaptation hormone allows one to conclude that the negative moments of life and health in human beings, including children, are followed by a reduction in its serum values and the moments of stressful situations of a healthy organism are attended by an increase in its serum levels. The data available in the literature on serum cortisol determination in diseases, including infectious diseases, suggest that the mild, uncomplicated, and acute forms of the disease without a history of prior premorbid conditions run mainly with the elevated serum levels of cortisol and the severe, complicated, lingering, and chronic ones in the presence of comorbidity with lowered cortisol values. It is concluded that serum cortisol measurement is an informative test for the health of a human being, his/her adaptation to the environment and, in case of disease, a test to predict its exacerbation and outcome, which allows therapy to be corrected in proper time.
authors.forename: L S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Kalagina
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D044967:Serum; D012737:Sex Factors; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone