My cortisol test results

[sferios]

Hi everyone,

I'm on 7 mg pred and I got my first ever cortisol test. It was done at 8 am, before I took my morning pred, and results were 15.0 ug/dL.

This is supposedly in the normal range for the time of day (on the upper end in fact).

Does this mean my adrenals are producing cortisol? Or can the pred cross-react and cause a higher reading, skewing the results?

Thank you.

[SheffieldJane]

I have been told that there is no point in having the test when you are taking more than 5 mgs of Pred. 3 mgs is ideal.

[sferios in reply to SheffieldJane]

Yeah, me too. But others here have said things like, "it can't hurt to get a baseline."

Is it really totally meaningless?

[SheffieldJane in reply to sferios]

I am no scientist but the Pred is holding you up well. Taper slowly and carefully. There really isn’t a solution to our fatigue, just time, regular naps and pacing activities.

Audio books have been a life saver for my reluctant rests. The better the book the sooner I sleep.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

No it isn't meaningless - if you hadn't taken your pred then it should be cortisol they measured and if it is at the top end of normal - your adrenals are producing a decent amount, pred has only a low cross-reactivity so even if it is interfering, it isn;t a lot.

healthcare.uiowa.edu/path_h....

The reason the synacthen test is said to be pointless when still on pred is because the pred does normally suppress cortisol production by the adrenals so it is to be expected the result will be unreliable. A basal cortisol is just a simple test - the synacthen test isn't as it must be done in a clinical setting and requires more assays so they do like to keep the numbers of such tests limited if they are unreliable.

[sferios in reply to PMRpro]

Wow! This is the best news I've heard in months. It gives me confidence I will one day get off the pred completely. As for now, I will do the dead slow taper in 0.5 increments and hopefully never have to go back up.

Thank you PMRpro.