The Effect of Inhaled Corticosteroids on Hair Cortisol
September 2018
TLDR Measuring cortisol in hair can help assess adrenal function in asthmatic children using inhaled corticosteroids.
The study investigated the use of hair cortisol (HC) measurement to evaluate adrenal suppression in asthmatic children using inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). It involved 53 children with asthma and 258 without. Results showed that children with asthma had lower median HC levels (1.83 pg/mg) compared to those without asthma (2.22 pg/mg), with a p-value of 0.057. Among asthmatic children, higher ICS doses were associated with lower HC levels, though the correlation was weak (p-value 0.54). The study concluded that measuring cortisol in scalp hair was feasible and might reflect adrenal function in asthmatic children using ICS.
