Association between Angiographically-Defined Coronary Artery Disease and Periodontal Diseases

Background- Results of studies seeking for the association between periodontal diseases and coronary artery disease (CAD) are significantly inconsistent. Such inconsistency has been attributed to the varying definitions for CAD and whether or not adjustment for common risk factors has been performed. The main objective of this study was to investigate the association between angiographically- defined CAD and periodontal diseases. Methods- Fifty-eight patients, who referred to Shaheed Rajaie Cardiovascular Medical Center, were recruited into a case-control design study. They were examined for periodontal indices such as the papillary bleeding index (PBI), probing depth (PD), plaque index (PI) and clinical periodontal attachment level (AL). The subjects were classified as having CAD (CAD+) if they had at least 50% stenosis in at least one major epicardial artery. Results- Thirty-nine patients (67.2%) were CAD+ and 19(32.8%) were CAD- CAD+ patients were more likely to be male than female (90.3% versus 40.7%, p=0.000) and of older ages (55±2.7 versus 40.6±4.8, p=0.000). Among periodontal parameters, no significant association was found between the mean of PBI, PD and CAD. On the other hand, there was a significant association between the amount of AL, PI, number of missing teeth and CAD. There was also correlation between the amount of AL and the number of vessels involved (r=0.428). The results of this study remained unchanged after adjustment for CAD risk factors, performing multilogistic regression analysis. Conclusion- The observation showed a significant relationship between angiographically- defined CAD and periodontal diseases, which can emphasize the importance of early diagnosis and complete treatment of periodontal infections, particularly in CAD susceptible individuals