Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Jan 1;17(1):e45-9.
doi: 10.4317/medoral.17206.

Study of total stimulated saliva flow and hyperpigmentation in the oral mucosa of patients diagnosed with hereditary hemochromatosis. Series of 25 cases

Miguel-Angel Sánchez-Pablo  1 , Vanesa González-García, Alejandro del Castillo-Rueda
Affiliations

Study of total stimulated saliva flow and hyperpigmentation in the oral mucosa of patients diagnosed with hereditary hemochromatosis. Series of 25 cases

Miguel-Angel Sánchez-Pablo et al. Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. .

Abstract

Objective: To study lesions in the oral cavity of patients with hereditary hemochromatosis and determine their association with iron overload.

Study design: We took a clinical history, examined the pigmentation of the oral mucosa, and measured total stimulated saliva production. We correlated our results with epidemiological, phenotypic, and genotypic findings. Patients with associated diseases or drug therapy causing xerostomia were excluded.

Results: We evaluated 25 patients (20 men, mean age 52 years) over a period of 6 months. No patient complained of xerostomia and pigmentation was not detected in the oral mucosa. The total stimulated salivary flow was reduced in 9 patients who had an average ferritin level of 796.5 µg/l. The decline in total stimulated salivary flow was significantly correlated with ferritin levels (p=0.002). Patients with ferritin levels within the normal range also had normal stimulated salivary flow.

Conclusions: We found no pigmented lesions in the oral mucosa; however, we did observe a decrease in total stimulated salivary flow that correlated with ferritin levels. Therefore, hyposialia caused by functional impairment of the salivary glands may be an early marker of iron deposition.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Salivary secretion and normal and decreased ferritin levels.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Pietrangelo A. Hereditary hemochromatosis--a new look at an old disease. N Engl J Med. 2004;350:2383–2397. - PubMed
    1. Dever JB, Mallory MA, Mallory JE, Wallace D, Kowdley KV. Phenotypic characteristics and diagnoses of patients referred to an iron overload clinic. Dig Dis Sci. 2010;55:803–807. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allen KJ, Gurrin LC, Constantine CC, Osborne NJ, Delatycki MB, Nicoll AJ. Iron-overload-relateddisease in HFE hereditary hemochromatosis. N Engl J Med. 2008;358:221–230. - PubMed
    1. Toxqui L, De Piero A, Courtois V, Bastida S, Sánchez-Muniz FJ, Vaquero MP. Iron deficiency and overload, Implications in oxidative stress andcardiovascular health. Nutr Hosp. 2010;25:350–365. - PubMed
    1. Ward-Booth P, Ferguson MM, MacDonald DG. Salivary gland involvement inhemochromatosis. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol. 1981;51:487–488. - PubMed