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Updated: Jun 15, 2026

Fecal Glucocorticoid Analysis: Non-invasive Adrenal Monitoring in Equids
Published on: April 25, 2016
Subclinical hypercortisolism: correlation between biochemical diagnostic criteria and clinical aspects
V Morelli1, B Masserini, A S Salcuni
1Unit of Endocrinology and Diabetology, Department of Medical Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda - Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan.
Objective:
Subclinical hypercortisolism (SH) has been associated with increased prevalence of hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia, central obesity, osteoporosis and vertebral fractures. We aimed to investigate the accuracy of different SH diagnostic criteria in predicting the presence of complications.
Design:
This was a retrospective study.
Patients:
We evaluated data from 231 patients (120 women and 111 men) affected with adrenal incidentalomas (AI).
Measurements:
We studied the accuracy of different SH diagnostic criteria (cortisol after 1 mg overnight dexamethasone suppression test - 1mg-DST - at different cut-off such as 49.7, 82.8, 137.9 nmol/l, elevated urinary free cortisol, reduced adrenal corticotroph hormone (ACTH) levels alone or various combination of these parameters) in predicting the concomitant presence of the following three complications: hypertension, type 2 diabetes and vertebral fractures.
Results:
The criterion characterized by the presence of two of 1mg-DST >82.8 nmol/l, elevated UFC and reduced ACTH struck the best balance between sensitivity and specificity, reaching a good accuracy in predicting the cluster of complications (61.9%; 77.1% and 75.8%, respectively). The presence of this cluster was associated with this criterion (OR 4.75, 95%CI 1.8-12.7, P = 0.002) regardless of gonadal status, body mass index (BMI) and age.
Conclusions:
The SH criterion characterized by the presence of two of 1mg-DST >82.8 nmol/l, elevated UFC and reduced ACTH seems the best in predicting the presence of chronic manifestations of subtle cortisol excess.
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