Is the C-reactive protein (CRP) a risk marker for acute myocardial infarction in patients with periodontal disease?

A relation between cardiovascular disease and periodontal dis- ease has been evidenced in different studies. This research pre- tended to determine whether ultra sensitive CRP associated with Periodontal Disease is a risk marker for AMI and if US-CRP associated with AMI is higher than this with Periodontal Disease. In a case-control study 158 patients were analyzed, 77 had AMI and 81 were healthy individuals. Inclusion criteria: patients with and without AMI with at least 10 teeth. Exclusion criteria: patients with any active infection, antibiotic therapy or corticos- teroids at the examination. US-CRP, glycaemia, lipid profile, cholesterol tests and periodontal diagnosis were done. The mean age for test group (77) was 56.2 (IC95% ± 2.56) and for control group (81) was 38.6 (IC 95% ± 2.98) (P < 0.05). 59 in test group and 72 in control group were no smokers. 40 in test group and 29 in control group showed severe chronic periodontitis. A Kolmogorov-SmirnovtestshowedthatUS-CRPdidn ́thavea normal behavior, therefore a Box – Cox transformation was done. After that, there were significant differences (P < 0.05) in the US-CRP levels in both groups. When the analysis of the severity of the disease was done, there were no significant differ- ences. Despite these no significant differences in the US-CRP val- ues between the groups and regard to the severity of the disease, AMI patients with Periodontitis showed higher levels of US-CRP than the control group.