Scintigraphic Evidence of Poor Salivary Function in Type 2 Diabetes
- Chia-Hung Kao, MD1,
- Shih-Chuan Tsai, MD2 and
- Shung-Shung Sun, MD3
- 1Department of Nuclear Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung
- 2Department of Nuclear Medicine, Show-Chwan Memorial Hospital, Changhua
- 3Department of Nuclear Medicine, China Medicine College Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
In type 2 diabetes, a high prevalence of oral problems has been detected. These problems include mouth dryness, an increase in periodontal disease, oral Candida, and swelling of the parotid glands (1). Salivary flow rates have often been found to be significantly reduced in type 2 diabetic patients (2), although these findings have not been confirmed (3). Scintigraphic changes correlate well with salivary gland abnormalities (4) and histopathological changes (5). This technique has gained widespread acceptance in evaluating a variety of salivary glandular disorders (6,7). The aim of the present study was to test whether patients with type 2 diabetes suffer from impaired salivary function using objective and quantitative salivary scintigraphy.
A total of 40 patients with type 2 diabetes for 10 years and 36 healthy age- and sex-matched …
