Dental Public Health, Faculty of Dentistry, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Int J Paediatr Dent. 2012 Sep;22(5):363-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-263X.2011.01207.x. Epub 2011 Dec 29.
Effective caries control and management requires identification of susceptible children for timely intervention. Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) is an important biomarker of caries risk.
This study aimed to comparatively evaluate the validities of a novel immunoassay and a conventional culture-based assay in detecting salivary S. mutans in a paediatric cohort.
190 children aged 3-4 years were recruited. The abundance of S. mutans in their saliva samples was analysed with three assay systems viz. a conventional culture-based assay (Dentocult SM), a novel immunoassay system (Saliva-Check MUTANS) based on monoclonal antibody technology and a Taqman real-time PCR assay taken as a gold standard.
The novel immunoassay accurately differentiated saliva samples with high (≥5 × 10(5) CFU/mL) and low (<5 × 10(5) CFU/mL) S. mutans levels. The sensitivity/specificity was 97.6%/90.6%. The conventional culture-based assay reached a reasonably high sensitivity/specificity (92.8%/81.3%) in identifying children with moderate (≥10(4) CFU/mL) S. mutans level. Its sensitivity/ specificity in selecting children with high (≥10(5) CFU/mL) and very high (>10(6) CFU/mL) S. mutans levels were not sufficient (78.7%/79.8% and 25.8%/91.8%, respectively).
The monoclonal antibody-based immunoassay accurately and rapidly determines S. mutans abundance in saliva and could be useful for chairside assessment of children's caries risk.
有效的龋齿控制和管理需要识别易感儿童，以便及时干预。变形链球菌（S. mutans）是龋齿风险的重要生物标志物。
本研究旨在比较评估一种新的免疫测定法和传统基于培养的测定法在检测儿科队列唾液中 S. mutans 的有效性。
招募了 190 名 3-4 岁的儿童。使用三种检测系统分析唾液样本中 S. mutans 的丰度，即传统的基于培养的检测系统（Dentocult SM）、基于单克隆抗体技术的新型免疫测定系统（Saliva-Check MUTANS）和作为金标准的 Taqman 实时 PCR 检测。
新型免疫测定法准确地区分了 S. mutans 水平高（≥5×10(5)CFU/mL）和低（<5×10(5)CFU/mL）的唾液样本。其灵敏度/特异性为 97.6%/90.6%。传统基于培养的检测法在识别 S. mutans 水平中度（≥10(4)CFU/mL）的儿童时达到了相当高的灵敏度/特异性（92.8%/81.3%）。其在选择 S. mutans 水平高（≥10(5)CFU/mL）和极高（>10(6)CFU/mL）的儿童的灵敏度/特异性不足（分别为 78.7%/79.8%和 25.8%/91.8%）。
基于单克隆抗体的免疫测定法准确快速地确定唾液中 S. mutans 的丰度，可用于椅旁评估儿童龋齿风险。
