title: Prospective use of saliva lithium determinations to monitor lithium therapy.
abstract: A mathematical equation (y = 2.27x -0.45) relating saliva (y) to plasma (x) lithium concentrations was previously determined by one of the authors. A prospective study is reported here in which the correlation coefficient between the predicted and the observed plasma concentrations in a new group of 25 patients was r = 0.89 (p less than 0.001). The study demonstrates that saliva lithium determinations can be safely used to monitor lithium therapy.
mesh_terms: D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008094:Lithium / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D011336:Probability; D012463:Saliva / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D008094:Lithium