comparison of oral micro flora and coronary artery disease

abstract introduction. cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death in developed counteries and it’s morbidity and mortality is also increasing in asia. hypertension, hyperlipidemia and smoking are majore risk factors of atherosclerosis. in recent years infectious agents such as clamidia pneumoniae, helicobacter pylori and dental flora infections seems to be effective in development of atherosclerosis. this study was designed for finding possible relation between dental flora and coronary artery disease. methods. this was a case-control study (40 case and 40 control patients). case group were the patients with 75%-one vessel coronary stenosis in angiography and control had normal angiography, oral samples were povided for microbial culture in 2 groups, and data were analyzed. results. frequency of streptococcus viridance, streptococcus -hemoliticus, pneumococcus, gram-negative staphylococcus, gram-positive staphylococcus, nisseria and diphteriod was 82.5, 15, 2.5, 12.5, 7/5, 17.5 and 5 percent in case group and 37.5, 27.5, 7.5, 5 and 7.5 percent for control group, respectively statistical test showed significant difference between frequency of streptococcus viridance in case and control group. discussion. this study suggests a probable relation between streptococcus viridance and coronary artherosclerosis disease, so prophylaxis can be recommended for this purpose. key words. oral flora, coronary artery disease, streptococsis virindis. address. dr. heidar khademi (assistant professor), department of oral medicine, school of dentistry, isfahan university of medical sciences, isfahan, iran. e-mail: [email protected] journal of isfahan dental school 2005; 1(2): 23-26.