I think  the practice is going to  be shifted to  the measurement of glucose via touch  only and no  need for nay  fluid

saliva might bright issues on contamination and aesthetics

Several studies found correlation of salivary glucose level with blood glucose level in diabetes mellitus  and suggests the use of glucose saliva as a marker in monitoring of diabetes mellitus, however, there are many technical aspects that need evaluation before introducing the test for routine purposes.

Dear Ishag the new trend is to find a non invasive technique in all investigatory modalities, in Diabetes from skin point manifestations, a glucose oxidation reaction is a simple non invasive measure to skin glucose level ( Normal skin glucose level 1.9 +/- 0.9 nmol/cc )

Thank you all for giving the information. I am planning to do on saliva for a large sample data and was worried about the technical issues.

Anjali,

You have to be careful with a relatively unproven method for a clinical study. If you cannot find sufficient information which is published in decent peer-reviewed journals, rather than beginning a large study, first you ought to validate the method itself and establish that the salivary glucose measurements consistently hold up their relationship under all circumstances with blood glucose. If not, you must identify conditions under which unpredictable variations occur and exclude those conditions.

I have not recently looked into this topic, but I think that there are reasons why such a simple and obviously convenient method is not used for patient care. Perhaps you will be able to sort out some of the unreliability of this method.

Best,

Dear Anjali, in a recently published study Gupta and colleagues did not found a correlation between blood glucose and salivary glucose levels in diabetic patients.

"In the present study, it was concluded that salivary glucose does not serve as a reliable indicator of blood glucose level, in diabetic patients who showed elevated blood glucose levels. Saliva did not seem to play a significant role as a non invasive indicator of diabetes in the present study." (cited from the conclusion section)

• Gupta A, Singh SK, Padmavathi BN, et al. (2015). Evaluation of Correlation of Blood Glucose and Salivary Glucose Level in Known Diabetic Patients. J Clin Diagn Res. 9(5):ZC106-9. [doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2015/12398.5994].

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4484145/pdf/jcdr-9-ZC106.pdf

Thanks for the very useful information

A new type of sensor for people with diabetes is being developed to measure sugar levels in the body using saliva instead of blood, researchers report.

Scientists at Brown University in Providence, R.I., created the sensor and successfully tested it using artificial saliva. It uses light, metal and a special enzyme that changes color when exposed to blood sugar.For more please read at following link.

Regards

http://consumer.healthday.com/diabetes-information-10/blood-glucose-monitor-news-69/saliva-test-might-someday-replace-needle-prick-for-diabetics-689208.html

Please find below the link to the article of the study Professor Ali A R Aldallal mentioned. Kind regards

http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/nanoph.2014.3.issue-3/nanoph-2013-0057/nanoph-2013-0057.xml?rskey=t5GzBa&result=1

The test which Professor Ali A R Aldallal mentioned was an in vitro test with artificial saliva. Such studies for alternative glucose measurement are conducted since the 1980s without real break through. People with diabetes are waiting for more than 20 years for non-invasive glucose measurement and they are repeatedly disappointed. A recent study by Gupta et al. (2015) did not found a correlation between blood glucose and salivary glucose levels in diabetic patients.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4484145/pdf/jcdr-9-ZC106.pdf

Glucose concentration in the primary saliva is closely related to plasma glucose concentration; nevertheless,glucose concentration in the final saliva of diabetic subjects has not been significantly correlated to their hyperglycemia.

In the acinar cells of salivary glands, where the SGLT1 protein plays a role in the cellular glucose disposal, similar regulations have been described in diabetic and hypertensive rats. However, changes in the acinar SGLT1 expression do not contribute to the final salivary glucose concentration.

We point out the functional role of SGLT1 in the luminal membrane of ductal cells as a modulator of salivary glucose concentration. 

http://www.dmsjournal.com/content/5/1/64

Thank you Robinson ,Michael. 

Study has been done by Reuterving et al 1987 showed that salivary glucose concentration was lower during the period of better metabolic control. In stimulated parotid saliva a positive correlation between glucose levels in saliva and blood was seen. A blood glucose threshold for glucose excretion at about 10-15 mmol/L might be present. So concluded that , the degree of diabetic metabolic control does not seem to be of major importance for salivary flow rate or composition in diabetics except for the salivary glucose concentration.

Dear Shete, a simple noninvasive procedure for measurements of glucose in skin secretion is described (Khramov, Papicheva). This method is based on glucose oxidation reaction. The normal glucose content is  1.9 +/- 0.9 nmol per cm2. A high correlation between blood glucose levels and skin excretion of glucose was detected in diabetics (r = 0.869). In sweat, glucose is present in small quantities only (usually 0-3 mg/100 ml, although level up to 11mg/100ml may be found).

 Khramov VA, Papicheva VV 2000 Jul. A simple method of glucose measurement in human skin secretions. Klin Lab Diagn; (7):14-5.

Dear All, do you have any updates in this topic?

My Review and work says YES, Blood glucose is very related to the saliva glucose and it can be use as an indicator of diabetes