Washington, April 29 : A research team, including an Indian-origin boffin, has developed a painless new method for detecting diabetes, utilizing saliva.

While searching for biomarkers that may indicate diabetes, doctors examined the saliva of 40 different patients.

Through salivary analysis, they managed to devise a new `non-invasive' method for detecting diabetes that foregoes the uncomfortable prick of a needle- patients need only to spit into a cup.

The spit test could be performed for little cost in a doctor's office or at a patient's home.

"Our goal was to characterize proteins in human saliva that may indicate prediabetes and type-2. Analysis of these proteins allowed us to develop a new method for screening, detecting and monitoring the diabetic state," said Srinivasa R. Nagalla, MD a member of the research team.

The method will be revealed Friday, May 15, at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) 18th Annual Meeting & Clinical Congress in Houston, Texas.
(ANI)