Salivary alterations in type 1 diabetes mellitus patients: Salivary glucose could be noninvasive tool for monitoring diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is an endocrine disease characterized by hyperglycemia, the pathogenic mechanisms by which hyperglycemia arises differ widely. Monitoring people with diabetes involve repeated estimations of plasma glucose either by finger pricks or by intravenous blood sampling. Hence, a noninvasive procedure for glucose measurements would be most precious under the circumstances. AIMS: (1) To evaluate salivary glucose, total protein and albumin in type 1 DM (T1DM) patients and to compare with healthy nondiabetic control group. (2) To compare and correlate serum and salivary glucose levels in patients with T1DM. STUDY DESIGN: This study consisted of 30 T1DM patients and 30 controls. All subjects were subjected to the serum glucose, salivary glucose, and total protein and albumin estimations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Glucose estimations were done by glucose oxidase-peroxidase method, total protein estimations were done by Biuret method, end point and albumin estimations were done by bromocresol green dye method, end point. All the estimations were performed using an autoanalyzer. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Mean and standard deviation, Student's t-test and Karl Pearson correlation co-efficient were calculated. All these statistical analyses were performed by using SPSS 11.5 software. RESULTS: The results showed elevated levels of salivary glucose, total protein and albumin in T1DM group compared to healthy controls. Further the levels of serum and salivary glucose in T1DM patients were significantly correlated. CONCLUSION: There are definite changes in salivary composition with increased levels of salivary glucose, total protein and albumin in T1DM patients compared with healthy controls. Salivary glucose could be used for monitoring of DM.

Ponticulus posticus on the posterior arch of atlas, prevalence analysis in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients of gulbarga population.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence and morphological features of Ponticulus Posticus (PP) in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients of Gulbarga population, to substantiate whether ponticulus posticus was the possible cause of chronic tension-type headaches and migraine. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Five hundred patients were investigated with digital lateral cephalograms for the presence and type of ponticulus posticus. All the patients in whom ponticulus posticus was present in either partial or complete form were further studied for symptoms like chronic tension type headache, orofacial pain or diagnosed migraine. RESULTS: Among the sample of 500 cases, partial ponticulus posticus was found in 302 patients (60%) (Males 48% and Females 52%). Complete variant was found in 40 cases (8%) (Males 65% and females 35% both, who were in the age group of 16-45 years), with a mean age of 28 years and SD 27.76 ±10.74. In partial PP, 42 patients (14%) were found to be symptomatic. In complete form, 32 patients (78%) were found to be symptomatic. Symptoms were mainly in the form of migraine or chronic type of headache. CONCLUSION: According to our study, partial form of PP was found to be more prevalent as compared to complete form in Gulbarga population and complete form of ponticulus posticus can be considered as possible cause for chronic tension type headache, orofacial pain and migraine.