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A 40-year-old female asked:

Doc wants to do an 8am serum cortisol & acth. i have a cold - will it affect test results? wait until cold is gone? or doesn't matter?

1 doctor answer2 doctors weighed in
Dr. Philip Kern
Endocrinology 45 years experience
Addison's disease: Unclear why doc wants to do these tests, but presumably doc is wondering about addison's disease, where cortisol is low, and acth is high. A cold, if anything, would raise cortisol. An elevated cortisol would be a healthy/normal response of your adrenals. I say go ahead and do the test.
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Last updated Sep 29, 2016

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