DEVELOPMENT OF A SALIVA CORTISOL ASSAY USING FILTER PAPER TECHNIQUE

The objective of this study is to determine reliability & validity of measuring saliva cortisol using the "saliva spot" technique. Serial samples of cortisol will simultaneously be measured comparing 3 sampling techniques: blood collected in a tube, saliva collected in a tube and saliva collected on filter paper. Sampling will occur once every hour for 24 hours to examine reliability of cross various concentrations of cortisol as reflected by the normal diurnal variation of cortisol.