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
. 2023 Mar 28:20:43.
eCollection 2023.

The salivary alpha-amylase concentration in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A case-control study

Fahimeh Pakravan  1 , Mehdi Nasr Isfahani  2 , Mateen Ghorbani  3 , Naghmeh Salesi  4 , Mansour Salesi  5
Affiliations

The salivary alpha-amylase concentration in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A case-control study

Fahimeh Pakravan et al. Dent Res J (Isfahan). .

Abstract

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common chronic inflammatory diseases. Previous studies have reported an association between stress and salivary alpha-amylase. The aim of this study was to investigate the concentration of salivary alpha-amylase in patients with RA (by elimination of stress factor).

Materials and methods: In this case-control study, we enrolled 50 patients with RA and 48 healthy patients as the control group. The perceived stress scale questionnaire was used to evaluate scores of stress in both case and control groups, and then the participants with high scores of stress were excluded from the study. Moreover, the alpha-amylase activity kit was used for the assessment of the levels of salivary alpha-amylase. In all analyses, the significance level was considered to be < 0.05. Finally, the obtained data were analyzed by SPSS22.

Results: Our results indicated a high score of stress in the case group (19.42 ± 5.83 units) compared with the control group (18.02 ± 6.07 units) which was not statistically significant (P < 0.248). Moreover, we demonstrated a high salivary alpha-amylase concentration in the case group (340.65 ± 38.04 units) compared to the control group (302.62 ± 58.72 units), which was statistically significant (P < 0.001). The sensitivity and specificity of this method, at >312 alpha-amylase concentrations, were 80% and 46%, respectively.

Conclusion: In general, we indicated that the alpha-amylase concentration in patients with RA is higher than the healthy controls, and can be used as a codiagnostic factor.

Keywords: Rheumatoid arthritis; salivary alpha-amylases; stress disorder.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors of this manuscript declare that they have no conflicts of interest, real or perceived, financial or nonfinancial in this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mean score of anxiety (on the PSS) in patient and control groups. PSS: Perceived Stress Scale
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean and deviation of salivary alpha-amylase concentration (U/ml) in patient and control groups
Figure 3
Figure 3
The ROC curve analysis. (The salivary alpha-amylase concentration in patients and controls). ROC: Receiver operating characteristics
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Smolen JS, Aletaha D, McInnes IB. Rheumatoid arthritis. Lancet. 2016;388:2023–38. - PubMed
    1. Hoxha M. A systematic review on the role of eicosanoid pathways in rheumatoid arthritis. Adv Med Sci. 2018;63:22–9. - PubMed
    1. Wasserman AM. Diagnosis and management of rheumatoid arthritis. Am Fam Physician. 2011;84:1245–52. - PubMed
    1. Atzeni F, Talotta R, Masala IF, Bongiovanni S, Boccassini L, Sarzi-Puttini P. Biomarkers in rheumatoid arthritis. Isr Med Assoc J. 2017;19:512–6. - PubMed
    1. Kunikullaya UK, Kumar MA, Ananthakrishnan V, Jaisri G. Stress as a cause of recurrent aphthous stomatitis and its correlation with salivary stress markers. Chin J Physiol. 2017;60:226–30. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources