Determination of salivary glucose in healthy adults.

OBJECTIVES: Our aim in this study was to determine the concentration of salivary glucose in healthy individuals and to compare it with the capillary glycemia. STUDY
DESIGN: Samples of unstimulated whole saliva were collected from 63 non-diabetic patients. The concentration of salivary glucose and capillary blood was measured in all of the patients. The salivary glucose was determined by enzymatic method and spectrophotometry. The data was then analyzed using the Spearman correlation test, considering values of p<0.05 to be significant.
RESULTS: The whole sample consisted of 47.6% males and 52.4% women, with an average age of 37.5+/-15.7 years old. The average rates of unstimulated salivary flow were 0.41+/-0.21 ml/min among males and 0.31+/-0.15 ml/min among females. No significant difference was found based on these results (p=0.078). The average blood glucose among the males studied was 100.05+/-13.51 mg/dL, and among females, it was 99.5+/-13.9 mg/dL. The average salivary glucose for the whole sample was 5.97+/-1.87 mg/dL, with 5.91+/-2.19 mg/dL among males and 5.97+/-1.56 mg/dL among females, respectively, without presenting any significant differences (p=0.908). The concentration of salivary glucose did not present any statistically significant correlation with the capillary glycemia (p=0.732).
CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the concentration of salivary glucose is not dependent on capillary glycemia and that the concentration of salivary glucose does not present significant differences between the measurements for males and females.