2018 · Journal of developmental origins of health and disease · paywalled
Associations between maternal prenatal cortisol and fetal growth are specific to infant sex: findings from the Wirral Child Health and Development Study
Braithwaite et al.
The finding, in our words
Home self-collection of saliva at 32 weeks gestation demonstrated sex-specific associations between maternal cortisol and infant birth weight, with a significant positive association in males. This shows that decentralised sampling can capture clinically relevant hormone data for prenatal research without clinic visits.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
This study used home self-collected saliva samples to successfully monitor cytokines and cortisol in mothers and infants, finding that a community singing intervention significantly reduced salivary interleukin-6 levels in mothers with postnatal depression.
Kirkpatrick et al., Brain, behavior, and immunity (paywalled) · source ↗
At-home saliva sampling for cortisol was feasible over 12 days in two people with poststroke aphasia, with the cortisol awakening response remaining consistent across days and weeks.
Laures-Gore et al., Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR (paywalled) · source ↗
This study found that salivary 11-dehydrodexamethasone correlates strongly with serum dexamethasone, unlike salivary dexamethasone which shows poor agreement. This validation suggests patients could self-collect saliva samples at home to verify dexamethasone absorption for the overnight suppression test.
Marshall et al., The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism (paywalled) · source ↗
This study validated a lateral flow fluorescence assay using quantum dots for saliva and europium nanoparticles for serum to detect cortisol within physiological ranges. The test operates in 15 minutes with a handheld reader, supporting point-of-care and at-home monitoring without a cold chain.
Bruno et al., Journal of fluorescence (paywalled) · source ↗
In a study of 46 perinatal nicotine users, dried blood spots and saliva were used weekly to measure reproductive hormones, finding that lower postpartum estradiol and greater peripartum declines in oxytocin were associated with increased nicotine craving and use. This demonstrates the feasibility of decentralised microsampling and remote surveys for longitudinal hormone tracking in vulnerable populations.
Allen et al., Drug and alcohol dependence reports (paywalled) · source ↗