PLASMA AND SALIVARY GLUCOSE IN DIABETICS ATTENDING TERTIARY HOSPITAL IN MAIDUGURI, NORTHEASTERN NIGERIA

RM Gali*, HA Kura, YP Mamza, AH Musa, Ry Genesis and F. Adamu

ABSTRACT

Aims: Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease with a surge in prevalence worldwide, the widely sample use is blood which is an invasive test hence the need to investigate if salivary glucose which is noninvasive and painless method can be used as an alternative to plasma glucose in the screening for diabetes mellitus. Methodology: One hundred (100) type 11 diabetic patients and fifty (50) non-diabetic controls age-matched were recruited for this study. The levels of plasma and salivary glucose were determined by glucose oxidase method. Result: The findings of this study revealed the mean fasting plasma and salivary glucose in diabetic were 8.43 ± 4.07 mmol/l and 0.78 ± 0.66 mmol/l respectively. In addition, the mean fasting plasma and salivary glucose in non-diabetic were 4.42 ± 0.95mmol/l and 0.23mmol/l ± 0.40 respectively. There is positive and significant correlation between plasma and salivary glucose in both diabetic and non-diabetic. Conclusion: salivary glucose may be used as potentially non-invasive tool for diabetes mellitus screening in large population, which may be easier than collection of blood sample.

Keywords: Plasma, salivary, glucose.