How is Saliva Testing an Accurate Way to Diagnose Diseases?



Table of Contents

Introduction3

Discussion3

Conclusion5

References6

Annotated Bibliography7

How is Saliva Testing an Accurate Way to Diagnose Diseases?

Introduction

Saliva is a biological fluid secreted by the salivary glands, inside the mouth. It is a clear, colorless liquid which is released into the mouth by three pairs of major salivary glands (sub-mandibular, parotid, sublingual) and numerous minor salivary glands of the mouth. Saliva can also be used in forensic toxicology, as it is considered to be a filtrate of the blood, similar to urine. The majority of proteins present in saliva are involved in signaling pathways activated by the body in case of infection or organ damage. The saliva tests are used for the diagnosis of many diseases and infections.

Discussion

The saliva test is a technique which is used for saliva analysis in the laboratory for the identification of infectious, inflammatory, immunologic, endocrine and other type of conditions. Saliva is used to determine and diagnose various diseases and conditions like allergies, hypogonadism, parasites, cancer, HIV, anovulation and other diseases (Fischbach & Dunning, 2008). Notably, salivary testing has even been used by the U.S. government to assess circadian rhythm shifts in astronauts before flight and to evaluate hormonal profiles of soldiers undergoing military survival training (Nieves & Blue, 2008).

Steroid hormones in saliva are exceptionally stable and can be measured exactly. The salivary concentration of cortisol is an excellent indicator of the free concentration in plasma of the same and offers a practical approach to determine the pituitary-adrenal function (Zunt, 2006). To verify the clinical usefulness of saliva in the determination of adrenocortical function were measured levels of cortisol in saliva by radioimmunoassay, concluding that the measure of it in saliva can be used sufficiently to monitor their concentrations in serum unbound free.

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