Radioimmunoassay for "free" testosterone in human saliva.

Abstract A sensitive, specific and accurate direct radioimmunoassay of testosterone in human saliva, without chromatography, is described. Ether extraction was employed before immunoassay which was performed by using rapid double antibody method. The assay had a sensitivity of 8 pg/tube and blanks were negligible; the intra- and inter-assay coefficient of variation were 4.8 and 9.7%, respectively. The mean recovery of labelled [1,2- 3 H]-testosterone, obtained from 90 samples, was 85.6 ± 11.3%. Good correlation was found between the results determined on 26 pairs of samples with and without the use of Chromatographic partition ( r = 0.9559). Results in men and women under normal and pathological conditions are reported.