Gum disease detector shows its teeth

A University of Michigan study has proved a Sandia National Laboratories handheld device can determine from a sample of saliva whether a patient has gum disease and how advanced it is.

‘The gold standard for any medical test is when instruments are used to examine human patients,’ said Sandia researcher Amy Herr. ‘The pilot study allowed us to compare our results to accepted clinical measurements. Then we could statistically validate both the periodontal disease biomarker and the new microfluidic instrument.

‘We achieved faster and more reproducible results because we combined steps that ordinarily require time-consuming manual handling by many people, into a single automated device.’

Because the amount of sample fluid needed for testing is so small, Herr sees further applications in other disease areas. These include potentially improved diagnosis of prostate and breast cancer as well as rapid measurements of serum in animal models employed in vaccine development research.