Periodontal disease and its association with angiographically verified coronary artery disease – a pilot study

Aim: To investigate the association of chronic and aggressive periodontitis with the severity of coronary artery disease in hospitalized patients. Material and Methods: Subjects were recruited from hospitalized patients at the University Hospital Centre Zagreb that had to undergo coronary angiography due to their primary illness. Thorough clinical examination included: number of teeth, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, approximal plaque index (API), bleeding on probing (BOP), periodontal probing depth (PD), gingival recession (GR), clinical attachment loss (CAL) and general quality of life assessment (SF-36). Data were analyzed using Kruskal–Wallis and Pearson’s Chi-Square test. Results: From 66 patients that were examined so far, 47 (71.2%) were hospitalized for acute coronary syndrome (ACS), 15 (22.7%) had stable coronary artery disease (CAD) and only 4 (6.1%) had no significant CAD. Stable CAD had the highest PD (3.96  1.09) and CAL (4.58  1.43) values, whereas ACS group had PD (3.71  0.81) and CAL (4.19  1.03), with no significance (p > 0.05). Out of 66 patients in total, 46 (69.7%) were diagnosed with periodontitis. Chronic periodontitis was the most common finding, with 76.5% in ACS group and 56.5% in patients with stable CAD (p > 0.05). Only 16 (24.2%) out of 66 patients were never-smokers. General quality of life assessment showed lowest quality of life in stable CAD group for both mental health (p ≤ 0.032) and energy vitality (p ≤ 0.022). Conclusion: Due to the low number of patients examined so far, we couldn’t establish a positive association of periodontitis and angiographically verified CAD. However, 2/3 of patients had periodontitis and as such pose a risk for CAD development.