Hyderabad :

In what could come as a relief to thousands of  diabetic patients who have to regularly prick their fingers to test sugar levels in their blood, doctors at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims) are set to roll out a prick free saliva-based test to detect and monitor diabetes.

The hospital’s endocrinology department has been researching on use of  saliva  as a substitute for blood to identify and monitor diabetes  since 2001. They said that saliva is directly filtered from blood into the mouth, so it will have a direct reflection of a person’s health and disease.

“Technology has improved so much that it is now possible to take small quantities of body fluids like saliva and perform lab test as with blood,” said Dr P V Rao, head of endocrinology, Nims.

This new test called ‘Glycosylated proteome’ is non-invasive, multi-analytic diagnostic test for accurate assessment of diabetes and is superior to the existing glucose-assessment blood test, he added.

Annually, a diabetic has to bear approximately 150 pricks and those who are insulin dependent need to take two shots daily. Many diabetics may not be monitoring their condition because of the discomfort involved in finger-pricking putting their lives at risk. This technique will be a boon for patients and reduce the burden of blood test pricks.

This new test for assessing blood glucose control over a period of seven days involves collection of saliva from the patient’s upper jaw with the help of a swab which is then squeezed out and the fluid is used for the test instead of blood.

“A saliva based test would eliminate the discomfort associated with monitoring blood sugar levels, and lead to greater regularity in testing,” he added.

Over the years, 300 children and 300 adults with type 1 diabetes were studied at Nims for saliva-based diagnostic test instead of blood test. Doctors found that they were able to see the same parameters in saliva as those in blood.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / May 12th, 2013