Effects of acute febrile diseases on the periodontium of rhesus monkeys with reference to poliomyelitis.

A GREAT number of systemic diseases have been listed as contributing to, 1A, or even causing the occurrence of periodontal disease." 4 23 Acute febrile diseases have been considered to be important in the pathogenesis of periodontal disease, especially since Gottlieb"' 12 described diffuse atrophy of the alveolar bone in a young man who died of influenza. Talbot4" noted as early as 1899 an association between eruptive fever and impairment of the periodontal tissues. Acute febrile diseases have been mentioned as part of the complex of systemic diseases which might cause periodontal disease." 5, 29 Patients frequently recall soreness of the teeth, gingival tenderness, and hemorrhage which have occurred during an attack of acute febrile disease. They therefore associate elevation of temperature as an initiating factor in periodontal disease. No studies have been reported in which the gingival conditions were observed before, during, and after attacks of acute febrile disease. The theory of a relationship between this group of diseases and periodontal disease has therefore been built upon the history obtained from patients, clinical assumption, and mainly on a vague general concept of an influence of systemic disease on the metabolism and vitality of the periodontal tissues.2"' 38 Little is known of the nature of specific tissue vitality, tissue response, and tissue resistance related to systemic disease,7 thus a general conclusion pertaining to the periodontium is of questionable value. Experimental investigations of the periodontal tissues during the course of acute febrile disease have not been reported previously. The opportunity for an investigation of this problem was provided at the University of Michigan School of Public Health where work was done on experimentally-produced poliomyelitis in rhesus monkeys. This disease produced a high fever of a limited duration. In rhesus monkeys the morphology and physiology of the periodontium and the masticatory movements are essentially the same as in human beings. It has furthermore been established that the oral bacterial flora of rhesus monkeys is the same as the flora of the human mouth.' The monkeys were kept on a well-balanced human diet. Nineteen rhesus monkeys were utilized as experimental animals and seven other healthy monkeys, exposed to the same environmental and dietary conditions, were used as controls. Only monkeys which at necropsy had no