This study investigates within-subject variations and associations of salivary viscosities and flow rates in a test panel of healthy adults. After several practice sessions, unstimulated and stimulated whole saliva samples were collected 5 times daily (at 0800, 1100, 1400, 1700, and 2000 h) from 30 university students. There was a significant within-subject variation in viscosity and flow rate of unstimulated saliva (P<0.001). Intra-item correlations were significantly different for salivary flow rates (r= 0.82 for unstimulated, r= 0.88 for stimulated, P< 0.001) and viscosity of unstimulated saliva (r= 0.54, P< 0.05), but viscosity of stimulated saliva was different in this respect. Our results indicate that there is a significant within-subject variation in viscosity of unstimulated saliva.
The aim of this study was to investigate salivary flow rate, buffering capacity, and yeast counts in all adult patients seeking dental treatment at the University Dental Clinic in Kuopio, Finland, during autumn 1992. Altogether, 187 consecutive patients over 20 yr old were included. Stimulated and unstimulated salivary flow rates were as follows: 1.8±0.9 ml/min; 0.6±0.4 ml/min in men, and 1.3±0.7 ml/min; 0.4±0.3 ml/min in women. A total of 103 patients used one or more systemic medications daily, mainly for cardiovascular disease (29.9%). The patients with medication had significantly lower flow rates than unmedicated subjects; in particular, in the older age group over 60 yr old. The medicated subjects also had significantly more often low buffering capacity values than the unmedicated ones (20% and 7%, respectively, with pH <4 in the Dentobuff score). Positive yeast counts were observed in 66% of men and 55% of women, and more often in medicated than in unmedicated subjects (63% and 57%, respectively, NS). The results emphasize the need to take patients' sex and systemic medication into account in all salivary diagnoses.
The correlations between salivary proteins and the daytime variations are not known. The present study investigated the within-subject variation of correlations and concentrations between lysozyme, IgA, IgG, IgM, albumin, amylase, and total protein in stimulated whole saliva of healthy adults in the course of a 12-h period. After several practise sessions, unstimulated and stimulated whole saliva samples were collected five times daily (at 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m., and 8 p.m.) from 30 healthy university students. Flow rate and total protein concentration were used as covariates, and gender as a between-subject factor in the MANOVA analysis. After this adjustment, there was significant within-subject variation in salivary IgA (P < 0.001), albumin (P < 0.01), amylase (P < 0.05), and total protein (P < 0.001) concentrations. Total protein correlated significantly with amylase albumin and IgA through different samplings. In addition, IgG correlated with albumin and lysozyme in the course of 12 h. On the whole, the correlations between variables remained stable during repeated samplings. In addition, rankings of subjects for the variables tended to be maintained across different samplings (P < 0.001). However, the observed within-subject variations in salivary IgA, albumin, amylase, and total protein concentrations suggest that these proteins are subject to short-term variation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.