Repeated dexamethasone suppression test in healthy volunteers

Abstract

The dexamethasone suppression test (DST) was studied in 20 healthy male volunteers, of whom 15 were reinvestigated after 5 to 6 weeks. The mean pre-dexamethasone Cortisol levels did not differ between the two occasions. Furthermore, they were not correlated. The numbers of abnormal DSTs were reduced from 35% to 7%. The poor test/re-test reliability indicates that unspecified arousal may be a confounding factor in the outcome of DST.