{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,5]],"date-time":"2026-08-05T05:24:09Z","timestamp":1785907449849,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,28]],"date-time":"2022-12-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1672185600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Molecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The simultaneous measurement of dexamethasone and cortisol has proven the ability to increase the diagnostic performance of the overnight dexamethasone-suppression test. Furthermore, the therapeutic drug monitoring of administered corticosteroid drugs could represent a crucial tool for investigating unexpected variations of steroid hormones\u2019 circulating levels. In this work, an LC\u2013MS\/MS method for the quantification of cortisol, cortisone, dexamethasone and six additional exogenous corticosteroids in the serum\/plasma matrix was developed and validated in compliance with the ISO\/IEC requirements. To assess the efficiency of the validated method, serum samples of 75 patients undergoing the dexamethasone-suppression test and 21 plasma samples of patients under immunosuppressive treatment after kidney transplant were analyzed. In all dexamethasone-suppression test samples, it was possible to measure the circulating levels of cortisol, cortisone and dexamethasone. Concentrations of the latter were for all tested patients above the proposed cutoff for the dexamethasone-suppression test\u2019s results, and the cortisol concentrations showed good correlation with the ones measured by routine immunometric analysis, therefore confirming the screening outcome for all enrolled patients. Prednisone was detected and quantified in all enrolled patients, confirming the use of such a corticosteroid for immunosuppressive therapy. Thanks to these two applications, we proved the overall performance of the developed LC\u2013MS\/MS method for four target analytes. The future implementation of such an analytical tool in the clinical biochemistry laboratory\u2019s routine will guarantee a single and versatile tool for simultaneously monitoring dexamethasone-suppression-test results and corticosteroid drugs\u2019 administration.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules28010248","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,28]],"date-time":"2022-12-28T08:57:24Z","timestamp":1672217844000},"page":"248","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["Simultaneous Measurement of Cortisol, Cortisone, Dexamethasone and Additional Exogenous Corticosteroids by Rapid and Sensitive LC\u2013MS\/MS Analysis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"28","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9202-8013","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Federico","family":"Ponzetto","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, 10126 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6930-7073","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mirko","family":"Parasiliti-Caprino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, 10126 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fabio","family":"Settanni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory, City of Health and Science University Hospital, 10126 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Antonello","family":"Nonnato","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory, City of Health and Science University Hospital, 10126 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0431-8369","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giulio","family":"Mengozzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory, City of Health and Science University Hospital, 10126 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ezio","family":"Ghigo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, 10126 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Roberta","family":"Giordano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, University of Turin, 10126 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"S3","DOI":"10.1007\/BF01844196","article-title":"An overview of glucocorticoid anti-inflammatory actions","volume":"45","author":"Schleimer","year":"1993","journal-title":"Eur. 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