Salivary albumin and other constituents and their relation to oral and general health in the elderly.
OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to study salivary albumin concentrations in the elderly. We expected higher albumin values in the frail and diseased elderly in comparison to the more fit elderly. This was thought to be due to the eventually decreased mucosal integrity in the diseased patients.


METHODS
Paraffin wax-stimulated saliva was collected for 5 minutes from 131 hospitalized elderly, mean age of 82 years, and 252 elderly outpatients, mean age of 77 years. Forty-seven of the hospitalized elderly died during the 2-year follow-up. Albumin was analyzed spectrophotometrically from the saliva specimens, and values were studied statistically between the groups and regarding a number of background variables.


RESULTS
The following mean salivary albumin concentrations were observed: outpatients, 200 +/- 157 microg/mL; hospitalized surviving patients, 401 +/- 247 microg/mL; patients who later died, 501 +/- 417 microg/mL. The respective albumin output values were 439.7 +/- 432.8 microg/min in outpatients, 684.3 +/- 396.8 microg/min in hospitalized patients who survived, and 700.0 +/- 481.9 microg/min in the hospitalized patients who died. The differences were significant between the groups. The strongest explanatory factors for higher than median albumin concentrations were the use of analgesics in the hospitalized patients (odds ratio, 4.2; confidence interval, 1.5 to 11.4) and retaining own teeth in the outpatients (odds ratio, 4.3; confidence interval, 1.9 to 4.3). Frequency of mucosal pathologic condition did not appear as an explanatory factor in this respect.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study hypothesis was confirmed, showing significantly higher salivary albumin concentrations in the frail elderly. The present results may also be used as reference data for salivary albumin in the elderly.
Meurman
Jukka H
JH
Institute of Dentistry, University of Helsinki, Finland. Jukka.Meurman@Helsinki.fi
Rantonen
Panu
P
Pajukoski
Hanna
H
Sulkava
Raimo
R
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000418:Albumins / Q000032:analysis*; D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D016330:Frail Elderly; D006304:Health Status; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D009909:Oral Health; D010045:Outpatients; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides / Q000032:analysis*; D012636:Secretory Rate; D013053:Spectrophotometry; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D015996:Survival Rate
D000418:Albumins; D000700:Analgesics; D012471:Salivary Proteins and Peptides