Analysis of salivary components as non-invasive biomarkers for monitoring chronic kidney disease

Abstract

Saliva, a valuable source of biochemical information, is a potential diagnostic substance that helps to identify many diseases. Studies have revealed that saliva tests help identify many diseases. Saliva test has excellent advantages over blood test as the former can be collected non-invasively using simple equipment. This paper explores how salivary components can be used as diagnostic tool to identify chronic kidney disease (CKD). Experimental analysis was conducted to assess the levels of salivary components in whole saliva of CKD patients in contrast with healthy people. Urea and creatinine are the most accepted biomarkers of CKD. The correlation between creatinine and urea levels in human saliva and blood were analysed. Unstimulated saliva flow rate and pH levels were also monitored in this study. The results obtained from this study give concrete evidence that there is a positive correlation between creatinine and urea levels in blood and saliva. From the derived regression line equations, serum urea and creatinine values can be predicted from salivary values. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) performance analysis was performed and area under the curve (AUC) of 0.95 and 0.89 was obtained for salivary creatinine and urea.