Periodontitis as risk factor for acute myocardial infarction: A case control study

OBJECTIVES: To assess the periodontal status among the patients suffering from acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and to investigate whether periodontitis is a risk factor for AMI or not. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 60 subjects, 30 subjects in each AMI group and control group was conducted. Details of risk factors like age, sex, smoking, and alcohol consumption were obtained through a personal interview. Medical history was retrieved from the medical file. The oral hygiene status was assessed by using a simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S) and the periodontal status was assessed by community periodontal index (CPI) and loss of attachment (LOA) as per World Health Organization (WHO) methodology 1997. Chi-square test was used to analyze qualitative data whereas t-test and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was used for quantitative data. Multiple regression model was applied to check the risk factors for AMI. RESULTS: The mean OHI-S score for case and control group was 3.98 ± 0.70 and 3.11 ± 0.68, respectively, which was statistically highly significant ( P < 0.001). There was high severity of periodontitis (for both in terms of CPI and LOA) in the case group as compared with control group, that was found to be statistically highly significant ( P < 0.001). There was a significant result for OHI-S and LOA score with odds ratio of 0.13 and 0.79, respectively, when the multiple logistic regression model was applied. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study show evidence that those patients who have experienced myocardial infarction exhibit poor periodontal conditions in comparison to healthy subjects and suggest an association between chronic oral infections and myocardial infarction.