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Congenital absence of salivary glands in Down syndrome

Marwan Odeh1, Miriyam Hershkovits, Jacob Bornstein

  • 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Western Galilee Hospital, , Nahariya, Israel.

Archives of Disease in Childhood
|August 3, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Children with Down syndrome may have underdeveloped salivary glands. Ultrasound revealed that 26.7% of Down syndrome children had absent salivary glands, unlike healthy controls.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Dentistry
  • Genetics
  • Medical Imaging

Background:

  • Children with Down syndrome exhibit distinct saliva compositions.
  • The presence or absence of salivary glands in this population has not been previously documented.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the presence or absence of salivary glands in children with Down syndrome.
  • To compare salivary gland presence between children with Down syndrome and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

  • Ultrasound examinations were performed on 15 children with Down syndrome and 31 healthy children.
  • The parotid and submandibular glands on both sides were assessed for presence or absence.
  • Statistical analysis compared gland presence between the two groups.

Main Results:

  • One or more salivary glands were absent in 26.7% (4 out of 15) of children with Down syndrome.
  • All salivary glands were present in all healthy control children.
  • The difference in salivary gland presence between groups was statistically significant (p=0.008).

Conclusions:

  • Ultrasound imaging suggests that salivary glands may be undetected in some children with Down syndrome.
  • This finding may contribute to understanding altered saliva composition in Down syndrome.
Abstract

Keywords:
Congenital AbnormImaging

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