Salivary cortisol in late preterm infants

Accurate assessment of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis in preterm infants is challenging, but important in investigation of hypoglycaemia or adrenal function. Salivary cortisol reflects changes in unbound serum cortisol, offers a reliable alternative to measuring serum cortisol and returns values around one-tenth of plasma values. Limited data exist on salivary cortisol values in term neonates and even more so in newborn preterm infants.