Salivary and Serum Ferritin Levels: Is There a Correlation?

Blood samples are used for the diagnosis of many diseases. Serum ferritin level is known to be a marker of anemia and iron overload disorders. However, blood collection is an invasive method. Saliva, as a bio-fluid, contains a va-riety of important components that are successfully used for assessment of body health. The use of saliva samples for ferritin evaluation can be regarded as a simple and noninvasive alternative to serum assessment. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the correlation between salivary and serum ferritin levels.

In this cross-sectional study, 107 participants who were re-ferred to a medical laboratory in Qazvin, Iran, voluntarily provided unstimulated sali-va and blood samples using the standard methods. The levels of ferritin in the serum and saliva samples were determined. The Spearman’s rank-order correlation coeffi-cient was used to analyze the data.

The results suggested a positive correlation between the salivary and serum ferritin levels (P=0.004, r=0.27). Gender and age had no significant correlation with salivary and serum ferritin levels (P>0.05).

Considering the equivalent diagnostic efficacy as serum samples, salivary samples can be used as a noninvasive and simple method to determine the ferritin levels.