An Evaluation of Distal Hair Cortisol Concentrations Collected at Delivery
January 2018
Studysummary This study found low concordance between distal and proximal hair cortisol concentrations during early pregnancy, particularly when measured with different assay methods. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.
The study evaluated the validity of distal hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) collected at delivery to assess maternal cortisol secretion during early pregnancy. It involved 97 women from the Pregnancy Outcomes Maternal and Infant Study in Lima, Peru. Hair samples were collected at enrollment and full-term delivery, with HCC measured using Luminescence Immunoassay and LC-MS/MS. Results showed that distal hair segments had lower HCC compared to proximal segments, with poor concordance within assays but high correlation across assays. The findings suggested that distal hair segments collected at delivery might not accurately reflect early pregnancy cortisol levels, informing future study designs.
