Measuring visfatin levels in saliva: an alternative approach to gestational diabetes screening

OBJECTIVE: Oral glucose tolerance testing (OGTT) is the current recommended approach for the diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Visfatin is a type of novel adipokine of interest that mostly participates in glucose metabolism and inflammatory processes. We aim to identify a screening technique for GDM using salivary visfatin levels and to establish this technique’s value as a screening method compared to OGTT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional case-control study. The cohort was formed from the saliva samples of pregnant patients in their 24(th) through 28(th) weeks of gestation. Patients were divided into two groups depending on their GDM status. OGTT and visfatin test results were compared and subjected to further analysis to establish a cutoff value for visfatin testing. RESULTS: ELISA results indicated a significant difference between patients with GDM compared to patients without GDM; the values were 18.89 ± 9.59 and 12.44 ± 8.75, respectively (p: 0.007). A cutoff value of 10.5 ng/mL can be used to detect GDM with 78% sensitivity and 51% specificity. CONCLUSION: Salivary visfatin levels were significantly higher in patients with GDM. The existence of a differential in the concentration of visfatin in saliva can be utilized to develop a new screening method for GDM.