Normal levels of cortisol? Can someone please tell me what are normal levels of cortisol for a child 10 years?
Cortisol varies during the day so it depends what time the test was taken.
I do not know the levels of Pediatrics, but make sure the child is tested at different times of day - 8am, 14 hours and midnight for those times when the peaks are known diurnal rhythm and flow. It may also depend on body weight. I do not know if your child is to test for Addison's or Cushing.
At normal body peaks around 8 am, then falls at the end of the afternoon by about half, then almost nothing around midnight.
A good doctor will see just a problem in that there is no variation in the diurnal rhythm. For example, I had Cushing's, but my case is not typical, and my pace has been reversed, so I was high the night and low all day.
You should also know that saliva and urine testing the same type of cortisol - the kind of open so that blood serum tests. Some people have high cortisol binding globulin and even if they are sick, will not "spill" free cortisol as an issue of the CBG - not that they are not sick. In addition, laboratory error, the drugs may interfere with testing. Been there, done that.
Please make sure you see the best doctor possible and do not settle on one series of tests. test late at night can be done with saliva.
Posted on March 2, 2010.
