Analysis of Salivary Amylase Level in Patients with Pain of Endodontic Origin: A Case-Control Study. Salivary alpha-amylase level in endodontic diseases

Abstract

Background: Adequate management of pain of endodontic origin
requires an understanding of the severity and the need for
emergency treatment. Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) is a
major saliva biomarker linked to pain from oral diseases but
not established with pain from endodontic/pulpal diseases
which form a major proportion of oral pathologies.
Objective: To assess the relationship between salivary
alpha-amylase level and pain of endodontic origin.
Methods: A case-control study on patients attending the
Dental Centre of the University College Hospital, Ibadan,
diagnosed with pain of Symptomatic irreversible pulpitis
(SIP) and Symptomatic apical periodontitis (SAP). The pain
was assessed with a visual analogue scale (VAS)
subjectively. Saliva (stimulated and unstimulated) was
collected and the sAA level was analysed using Elisa Kit.
IBM SPSS version 25.0 was used for data analysis. Pearson’s
correlation was used to test the relationship between pain
and sAA level with a P-value set at ≤ 0.05.
Results: Participants (43, 30) were included as test and
control respectively. The mean unstimulated and
stimulated saliva sAA was 123.1 ng/ml ±22.59 and
119.6ng/ml ±27.98 respectively, for the test group and
47.55± 9.54 ng/ml and 48.24± 10.85 ng/m for the control.
The sAA level in both saliva samples was significantly higher
in the test group compared to the control group. However,
no significant correlation was observed between pain and
sAA in unstimulated (r = 0.04, p = 0.82) and stimulated (r =
0.01, p = 0.96) saliva.
Conclusion: sAA showed a significantly elevated level in
patients with pain of SIP and SAP but did not show a
correlation with pain perception.