Cardiovascular Diseases & Diagnosis

The Usefulness of Evaluation of IgG Antibodies against Periodontopathic Bacteria for Prediction of Vascular Disease

Abstract

Koichi Ishihara, Shuichi Hagiwara, Takashi Ogino, Masashi Morimura, and Kiyohiro Oshima

Background: The relationship between periodontopathic bacteria and cardiovascular disease has been shown in many studies. Additionally, it has been reported that the plasma antibody titer for periodontopathic bacteria is associated with the occurrence of coronary disease. In this study, we randomly evaluated the relation between the plasma antibody titer for periodontopathic bacteria and the existence of vascular diseases such as hypertension, stroke, and ischemic heart disease (IHD) in patients of the emergency room. 

Methods: Sixty patients who had medical examination in the emergency department of our hospital from January to December 2009 were randomly and inconsecutively included. We measured the levels of immunoglobulin (Ig) G antibodies against Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. g.), Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (A. a.), Prevotella intermedia (P. i.), and Eikenella corrodens (E. c.) in patients’ blood. Patients were divided into two groups; the positive group (even if one IgG antibody was significantly positive among four antibodies) and the negative group (negative for IgG antibody). The percentage of patients with vascular diseases (hypertension, stroke and IHD) was compared between the two groups.

Results: Vascular diseases found were as follows; hypertension (n=11), stroke (n=8), and ischemic heart disease (n=5). There were 26 patients in the positive group and 34 patients in the negative group. The mean of age and the serum total protein in the positive group was significantly (p>0.05) higher than in the negative group. The presence of vascular diseases excluding stroke was higher in the positive group, and hypertension and IHD separately, and all vascular diseases together were independently associated with the presence of antibodies against periodontopathic bacteria.

Conclusions: The presence of IgG antibodies against periodontopathic bacteria is significantly associated with the presence of vascular diseases. These results suggest that the evaluation of IgG antibodies for periodontopathic bacteria is useful for prediction of the presence of vascular disease.

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