ABSTRACT
Aim: Cortisol hair levels can be used to evaluate chronic stress status. In this context, an improved UHPLC-MS/MS assay for the determination of cortisol in hair was developed and validated. Materials & methods: Hair was extracted with methanol for 4 h at 25°C. Chromatographic run time was 5.5 min. The assay was linear in the range of 1-250 pg mg-1. Precision was 3.6-12.2% and accuracy 97.1-103.8%. The method was applied in hair from 19 volunteers admitted at a rehabilitation clinic, with ethanol consumption classified using ethyl glucuronide hair levels. Conclusion: Abstinent/chronic moderate ethanol consumers had significantly lower cortisol hair levels than chronic excessive consumers. This is the first study evaluating cortisol hair levels in ethanol abuse patients using an objective marker for ethanol consumption.
Subject(s)
HydrocortisoneABSTRACT
Cortisol is considered a particularly relevant biomarker in the context of stress evaluation. This study aims to review of the available literature on the determination of cortisol in hair using LC-MS/MS. Currently, there is no standardized procedure for the measurement of cortisol concentrations in hair, and different sample preparation, chromatographic separation and mass spectrometric detection conditions were described. Simple methanolic extraction, reversed-phase separation and MRM detection in negative ion mode are the most common employed analytical approaches. Reported assays presented acceptable sensitivity for clinical purposes. The increasing use of mass spectrometry in clinical laboratories may contribute to the establishment of LC-MS/MS as the method of choice for the determination of cortisol concentrations in hair.
