Amylase content of mixed saliva in children.

Salivary amylase levels were determined in normal subjects from birth until adult 
life and in children with conditions sometimes associated with low pancreatic 
amylase such as malnutrition, coeliac disease and cystic fibrosis. Mixed saliva 
was collected under carefully standardised conditions and amylase was measured by 
the method of Dahlqvist. There was a wide scatter of values 
in the 84 normal subjects, but concentrations rose from very low 
levels at birth to reach adult levels by the age of 
6 months to 1 year. Salivary amylase activity rose normally over 
ten weeks in one premature infant fed milk by gastrostomy. Thirteen 
children with coeliac disease and 9 children with cystic fibrosis mostly 
had normal salivary amylase concentrations. Six out of 12 malnourished children 
with jejunal villous atrophy of uncertain aetiology had low levels which 
rose to normal as recovery began. 