Amylase in mare lacrimale in patients with submandibular salivary gland transplantation to the lacrimal basin.

Six patients with dry eyes of different etiologies underwent transplants of 1.0 to 1.6 ml of submandibular salivary gland tissue, five of them to one eye and one to both eyes. In the four cases in which the transplants survived, the amylase activity in tear fluid sampled from the cisterna lacrimalis (temporal canthal meniscus) had a mean value of 5,147 U/l in contrast with the mean value 943 U/l of the fellow control eyes. In the two eyes in which the transplants failed to survive, the average value was 635 U/l. The small sample size does not enable calculation of statistical significance to the results but suggests that salivary amylase determinations in tear fluid would facilitate assessment of the functional status of the transplanted salivary tissue.