Salivary biomarkers--an update.

UNLABELLED

Saliva is the most easily available and accessible body fluid, which makes it one of the most sought after tools in diagnostic pathology. Markers expressed in saliva can be used for diagnosis and concurrent patient follow-up of diseases ranging from hereditary disorders to infections, as well as malignancies and also analysis of therapeutic levels of drugs. The emergence of hand-held devices has made possible the elucidation of point-of-care methods and research in the field has resulted in the assimilation of knowledge useful for clinical applications.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

This article describes some of the latest research in saliva diagnostics and provides some information on the various hand-held devices available.