Abstract:
The present study was designed to determine the
correlation between salivary and serum levels of creatinine
and urea in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and to
propose the use of saliva as an alternative medium for the analysis
of biochemical parameters of kidney function. Accordingly, an
analytical cross-sectional study was carried out using 100 CKD
patients attending the Nephrology Clinics at Teaching Hospital
Karapitiya, Sri Lanka. Saliva and serum samples were collected
from the patients for the estimation of creatinine and urea using
spectrophotometric assay kits. Of the total, the majority of the
patients were found within CKD stage 3 (82%). The salivary and
serum concentrations of creatinine varied within the range of 0.20
- 2.10 mg/dL and 1.54 – 11.6 mg/dL, whereas the salivary and
serum concentrations of urea varied within the range of 68.04 –
127.59 mg/dL and 60.14 – 168.25 mg/dL respectively within the
study population. Significant positive correlations were observed
between the salivary and serum concentrations of creatinine
(r= 0.985, p=0.01), and urea (r= 0.942, p=0.01), and between
salivary concentrations of creatinine and urea (r=0.887, p=0.01).
A significant difference was observed in the salivary biomarkers
between mild to moderate stages of CKD patients and severe to
end-stage CKD patients. No significant association was observed
in the salivary markers with the age and sex of the patients. The
area under curve values in the receiver operating characteristic
analysis was>0.9 (95% CI). These findings revealed high levels
of diagnostic accuracy in salivary biomarkers suggesting the
potential use of saliva for the assessment of kidney function in
CKD patients
