Overnight salivary caffeine clearance: A liver function test suitable for routine use
✍ Scribed by Gerhard Jost; Axel Wahlländer; Ursula Von Mandach; Rudolf Preisig
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1987
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 723 KB
- Volume
- 7
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0270-9139
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The feasibility of measuring caffeine clearance from saliva (SC1) was asseseed in ambulatory patients with liver disease and in a control group, and the results were compared with quantitative liver function tests. For this purpose, the subjects were given 280 mg caffeine p.0. in decaffeinated coffee powder between noon and 4 p.m., and caffeine concentrations were measured in saliva (using an enzyme immunoassay) before bedtime and upon arising. In the cirrhotics (n = 29), SC1 was 0.58 2 S.D. 0.45 ml per min x kg, thus being reduced to approximately one-third of drug-free, nonsmoking controls (1.53 2 0.46, n = 18); although patients with noncirrhotic liver disease showed intermediate values (0.95 = 0.47), their reduction in SC1 was significant (p c 0.001). SC1 was correlated with indocyanine green fractional clearance, galactose elimination capacity and aminopyrine breath test; however, the closest relationship (R. = 0.80) was observed with the aminopyrine breath test. It is suggested that the measurement of SC1 represents a noninvasive and innocuous procedure for quantifying hepatic microsomal function, and is suitable for routine use. Since a.m. saliva concentrations of caffeine are highly correlated (It, = -0.94) with SC1, further simplification of the test to a single-point measurement appears possible.