Context: For most of us be young or old, the fear of needle prick for blood tests was more painful than actually getting it done. Suppose that had to be done very often, the level of anxiety and misery it could cause to the patients was no doubt immense. How would it be if the same parameters could be tested in a non-invasive way? Hence a study to see if it is possible to use easily accessible saliva as an alternative to serum was conducted.
Aim: To compare and correlate the serum and salivary urea levels in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) patients and to validate the role of salivary urea (SaU) as an alternative to Serum urea in these patients.
Study Design: Case-control study
Methods: Blood and saliva samples from 105 chronic kidney disease patients and 37 healthy volunteers were collected and centrifuged. Urea concentration was estimated in the serum and salivary supernatant on the same day using automatic analyser.
Statistical Analysis: The serum and salivary urea levels between controls and cases were compared using t test. Correlation between serum and salivary urea was done using Pearson correlation coefficient. The diagnostic performance of salivary Urea was done by Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Cut off values were established for salivary Urea.
Results: Serum and salivary Urea levels were significantly higher in chronic kidney disease patients than healthy volunteers.
Conclusion: Saliva is a promising non-invasive alternative to serum for urea estimation.
