Kinetic assessment of salivary secretory response to citric acid, as compared with pilocarpine Caracterización cinética de la respuesta de secreción salival producida por ácido cítrico. Diferencias con pilocarpina

Abstract

Background: Induction of salivation is becoming increasingly popular in the assessment of salivary gland status. Various mechanical or pharmacological procedures are empirically used to produce salivation. Oral stimulation by citric acid (AC) is by far the most used sialagogue procedure. Aim: To characterize the salivary secretory response to AC solutions applied to the dorsolateral tongue surfaces. Subjects and methods: Young healthy women from the upper levels of a medical career (n=19) participated as volunteers. Salivary volume and UV-absorbing organic material in saliva from single subjects were measured after various protocols of topical stimulation by AC. Results: After a single stimulation by 1-8% AC the salivary flow rate peaked before 30 seconds and recovered the basal level earlier than 2 minutes. Repetitive stimulations at 30-sec intervals kept the flow rate at a maximum. After suspending these stimulations, basal flow rate was recovered before 2 minutes. Repetitive AC-stim