We determined the interdependence between the appearance of silent myocardial ischemia (SMI) in patients with CAD and their serum and saliva cortisol secretion. The study group comprised 90 patients divided into three groups. Group I - CAD patients with dominant SMI episodes within 24 hours of ECG monitoring. Group II - CAD patients with dominant painful ischemic episodes within 24 hours of ECG monitoring. Group III - control group, which comprised patients without CAD. The blood used to measure the total cortisol concentration was collected at 15.00, 24.00 and 07.00 hours, while saliva was collected 5 minutes before the blood samples. We measured the free cortisol concentration level in the saliva. Our investigations demonstrated a significant increase in mean serum cortisol concentrations in Group I. This was not the case in Group II. We observed a dependence between saliva cortisol secretion and the intensity of SMI episodes in Group I. This was not present in the serum. We noticed that the cortisol secretion level in patients with SMI was increased, however, ranging within laboratory limits.

Keywords: Saliva, serum, cortisol concentration, silent myocardial ischemia