Utilizing saliva instead of blood for diagnosis of both local and systemic health is a rapidly emerging field. Recognition of oral-systemic interrelationships for many diseases has fostered collaborations between medicine and dentistry, and many of these collaborations rely on salivary diagnostics. The oral cavity is easily accessed and contains most of the analytes present in blood. Saliva and mucosal transudate are generally utilized for oral diagnostics, but gingival crevicular fluid, buccal swabs, dental plaque and volatiles may also be useful depending on the analyte being studied. Examples of point-of-care devices capable of detecting HIV, TB, and Malaria targets are being developed and discussed in this overview.

Date Published: 29 May 2013
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 8723, Sensing Technologies for Global Health, Military Medicine, and Environmental Monitoring III, 872303 (29 May 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2020005

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8723:
Sensing Technologies for Global Health, Military Medicine, and Environmental Monitoring III
Šárka O. Southern, Editor(s)