585 ASSESSMENT OF OVARIAN FUNCTION BY SALIVARY PROGESTERONE

SIR,-Salivary cortisol concentrations can be used to assess adrenal function.’ Further investigations have shown the value of a salivary 17-OH-progesterone assay in monitoring therapy in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia.2 Our studies have now been extended to include the determination of salivary progesterone for assessing ovarian function. Previous experience showed that salivary steroid concentrations rarely exceeded 3% of the usual plasma concentration. A sensitive, specific radioimmunoassay was therefore developed for measuring progesterone in saliva, based on that for plasmaprogesterone.3 The sensitivity of the saliva assay, defined as the least amount of steroid distinguishable from zero at the 95% confidence limit, was 7 pg/tube.4 This sensitivity allowed determination of progesterone concentrations in small volumes of saliva (400.1) collected during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. The intra-assay and interassay coefficients of variation of high, medium, and low quality control saliva samples were

Autoimmune thyroiditis and Hashimoto's disease.

585 ASSESSMENT OF OVARIAN FUNCTION BY SALIVARY PROGESTERONE SIR,-Salivary cortisol concentrations can be used to assess adrenal function.’ Further in...
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