Saliva secretion and abnormal moistening of oral mucosa after bone marrow transplantation.

Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) is one of the methods to treat neoplasmatic blood diseases. This treatment is cause of several complications, some of which affecting the oral cavity. Patients who had undergone the treatment frequently experienced oral dryness some time thereafter. The aim of the study was to compare the level of moistening of the oral mucosa with the rate of secretion of the stimulated and non-stimulated saliva at various times after the patient underwent the bone marrow transplant. The study involved 46 patients 18 women and 28 men, aged 19 to 54 (mean 38.3 +/- 10.5 years), between 100 days and 6 years following the HSCT (mean 18.7 +/- 15.7 months). In each of the patients the over all look and moistening of the oral mucosa, as well as the rate of secretion of stimulated and non-stimulated saliva were assessed. Most of the HSCT patients had abnormal moistening of oral mucosa. Those with normal moistening exhibited average rates of both stimulated and non-stimulated saliva secretion significantly higher than patients with abnormal moistening of oral mucosa.