| Popis: |
Background: Salivary cortisol has been widely applied in the biological and clinical fields. The focus of the research nowadays is to assess its potentiality for early screening of several pre-clinical conditions, their diagnosis, clinical management, and disease progression. It has been employed as a multidisciplinary parameter ranging from Cushing syndrome, switching to stress or depression, even for the pre-diabetic condition or type 2 diabetes and periodontal disease as far as it concerns dentistry. The aim of this systematic review is to analyze the main evidence from the last 20 years of clinical trials regarding salivary cortisol levels related to the conditions mentioned above. Materials and methods: Clinical trials, case-control studies, cross-sectional studies, and cohort studies have been considered in this review. Results: Based on the 25 studies included, in the review (6 evaluated the relationship between salivary cortisol and hypercortisolism or CS, 20% of the studies considered pre-diabetes or T2D, 20% evaluated stress or major depressive diseases, and 9 studies the relationship with periodontal disease), salivary cortisol appears to be a promising multidisciplinary, non-invasive, and reliable biomarker. Conclusion: Its application seems to be useful both in pre-clinical and clinical screening and management of several conditions, but more studies should be conducted to evaluate precise and standardized salivary cortisol cut-off levels for laboratory testing. |
