Case Control Study to Assess Association between Periodontal Infection and Coronary Heart Disease

Background: Coronary heart disease is the lead¬ing cause of adult mortality and morbidity throughout the world. Well known risk factors independently or combined are involved in both atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction. Re¬cent data have shown that viral and bacterial in¬fections may also contribute to acute throm- boembolic events, hence a case control study was carried out. Aims and Objective : To inves¬tigate the possible association between peri- odontal health and coronary artery disease, in patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) and Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). Ma¬terial and Methods: 150 patients, 75 with AMI and 75 with CHD were included in the study. Data on hypertension, diabetes, smoking status and alcohol consumption were recorded. AMI patients were clinically examined 3-4 days af¬ter admission to the coronary care unit. Clini¬cal examination of CHD patients was carried out during the hospital stay. All teeth excluding third molars were studied and clinical data were recorded regarding Plaque Index, Simplified Oral Hygiene Index, Gingival Index, Gingival Bleeding Index, Probing Depth and Clinical At¬tachment Loss. Results: Percentage of sites ex¬hibiting bleeding on probing and the number of sites with more probing depth were significantly higher among AMI patients than those withCHD (P=0.05 and p=0.001 respectively).There was abundant plaque and debris around all tooth surfaces in AMI patients (p=0.001). Conclu¬sion: Overall result of this case control study showed an association between periodontitis and acute myocardial infarction