This study reported that analyzing hair cortisol levels using a validated online SPE LC-MS method provided a way to assess long-term hormone secretion in 114 healthy volunteers, with a median hair cortisol value of 4.76 pg/mg.
November 2025 in “Journal of Laboratory Medicine” This study found that cortisol levels, a biomarker of chronic stress, significantly increased in the post-COVID-19 lockdown period compared to pre-lockdown and during-lockdown periods, especially among females and young adults, reflecting sustained psychological stress from the pandemic.
30 citations
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July 2023 in “Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)” In this study, researchers developed an LC-MS/MS method to accurately quantify cortisone and cortisol levels in human scalp hair, finding that concentrations decrease predictably along the hair shaft, which could assist in identifying abnormal glucocorticoid exposure.
11 citations
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September 2020 in “Steroids” This study developed a new method using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to measure multiple steroid hormones in hair, requiring significantly fewer strands than previous methods, with high accuracy and precision.
January 2024 in “Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB)” This study developed a method to measure local steroid hormone concentrations in hair, providing new insights into hormone dynamics associated with androgenetic alopecia.