Interactive case 14: The case of the nighttime food thief

Try again. Prednisone can interfere with serum cortisol measurements in two ways. First, the drug itself can be detected by the assay, and, second, chronic prednisone use may suppress the hypothalalmic-pituitary-adrenal axis (resulting in decreased serum cortisol concentrations in response to stress or adrenal function testing). Because Ivy has not received prednisone for over a week and it was a low dose (< 1 mg/kg/day), prednisone is not likely affecting the test results. In addition, the preferred test to rule out iatrogenic hyperadrenocorticism is an ACTH stimulation test.

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