Prospective use of saliva lithium determinations to monitor lithium therapy
Othmer, E.; Powell, B.; Piziak, V.K.; Preskorn, S.H.
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 40(12): 525-526
1979
ISSN/ISBN: 0160-6689 PMID: 500576 Document Number: 145898
A mathematical equation (y = 2.27x -0.45) relating saliva (y) to plasma (x) lithium concentrations was previously determined by one of the authors. A prospective study is reported here in which the correlation coefficient between the predicted and the observed plasma concentrations in a new group of 25 patients was r = 0.89 (p less than 0.001). The study demonstrates that saliva lithium determinations can be safely used to monitor lithium therapy.