Real world evidence supports waking salivary cortisone as a screening test for adrenal insufficiency

Objective Worldwide, adults and children are at risk of adrenal insufficiency largely due to infectious diseases and adrenal suppression from use of anti-inflammatory glucocorticoids. Home waking salivary cortisone is an accurate screening test for adrenal insufficiency, it has potential to reduce costs, and patients prefer it to the adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) (synacthen) stimulation test. We carried out a service evaluation of home waking salivary cortisone in clinical care to identify implementation barriers.

Design, Patients and Measurements Service evaluation in a centre where 212 patients referred for adrenal insufficiency had a waking salivary cortisone. Problems encountered during testing were recorded and patient feedback, via focus groups, collected.

Results From all patients providing a waking salivary cortisone 55% had a normal test, 23% adrenal suppression, and 22% an equivocal result requiring a clinical centre ACTH stimulation test. The median (interquartile range [IQR]) for the time of the saliva sample was 07:40 (07:00–08:40). The median (IQR) days between collection and (i) delivery to local laboratory was 1 (0.25–2) day; (ii) reporting by local laboratory was 13 (11–18) days. Patients considered the test is “easy to do” and preferred it to the inpatient ACTH stimulation test. The principal challenge to clinical implementation was results reporting to clinicians due to delays at the local laboratory.

Conclusions This service evaluation provides real-world evidence that home waking salivary cortisone is an effective, practical screening test for adrenal insufficiency. It identified key barriers to testing implementation that need to be addressed when introducing the test to a health service.