title: [Salivary glands and the organism--interrelations and correlating reactions].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Functional disturbances and diseases of the salivary glands are not only conditioned by local factors, but are also based on the manifold connections of the salivary glands with the remaining organism. The salivary glands represent consequently a "mirror of diseases" and a "diagnostic fluid".
  
  
  METHODS
  A comparing analysis of the data of the Salivary Gland Register Hamburg (more than 18,000 cases) with the details of the literature was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Interrelationships and correlations of the salivary glands exist especially in diseases of the immune system, in viral infections, in metabolic diseases and in diseases of the hormone or nerve system. The occurrence and concentration of a great number of substances identified in the saliva represent a monitoring system with conclusions to functional or morphological alterations of other organs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The salivary glands as an integral component of the oral cavity are connected consequently in a manifold manner with the remaining organism by interrelationships and correlations and represent thus a "mirror of diseases".
authors.affiliation: Institut für Pathologie, Universität Hamburg.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Seifert
mesh_terms: D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry; D012466:Salivary Gland Diseases / Q000209:etiology*