Journal of Dental Medicine

One of the special kinds of periodontal disease is rapidly progressive periodontitis (RPP). This form of periodontitis is an aggressive disease, which results in bone destruction and loss of periodontal attachment 4 to 5 times more than adult periodontitis or slowly progressive periodontitis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of Actinobacilius actinomyct-em comitans (Aa) in RPP patients. A total number of sixty samples was collected from 15 patients with RPP and cultured inanaerobic conditions. Results showed the presence of Aa in 13 patients (86.7%), while 29 samples were Aa positive (48.3%). Two of the RPP patients (13.3%) were Aa negative even after two times bacterial culturing.

Statement of Problem: One of the best ways for treatment of Aggressive Periodontitis (AP) is identification and elimination of etiologic factors specially two microorganisms Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) and Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg) in patients harboring them.

Purpose: This study determines the prevalence of Aa and Pg and its correlation with age, sex and the number of family members as well as probing pocket depth (PPD) in active sites of AP patients, referred to department of periodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional, descriptive study, 54 sites (PPD> 5mm) in 15 patients were considered for culture. Marginal gingiva was dried and sampling performed by paperpoint (#30). The selective medium for Aa, was Trypticase Soy Agar-Bacitracin- Vancomycin (TSBV) and for Pg was Brucella agar.Results were analyzed using Fisher and Chi-Square statistical tests.

Results: Thirteen patients or 38 sites (70.4%) were identified as Aa positive and 3 patients or 10 sites (18.4%) were Pg positive. There was no significant relation between the presence of Aa and sex or age (P=0.086). Pg was more prevalent in men compared with women (P<0.0001) but with regard to age there was no statistical difference between men and women. Aa had a significant positive correlation with PPD (P=0.002), which was not true for Pg. In addition, the number of positive sites showed a significant negative correlation with the number of family members.

Conclusion: Based on the present study, the prevalence of Aa in deep pockets in patients with AP is higher than Pg.

Background and Aims: Periodontitis is one of the most common oral diseases with the various incidence rates in different populations. A number of bacteria are considered as the major etiologic agents of periodontitis. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of periodontopathogen bacteria in patients using both PCR and culture techniques.
Materials and Methods: In this study, one-hundred patients (including 62 females and 38 males with an average age of 49±11.5 years) with adult periodontitis referred to periodontics department of School of Dentistry/Tehran University of Medical Sciences were investigated. The samples were taken and sent immediately to the laboratory for culture and molecular evaluation. The PCR was performed using specific primers and the statistical analysis of data was performed using SPSS statistic software and McNemar test.
Results: The results demonstrated that the total detection rate in culture method was 64%. The rate of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) was 28% which was significantly higher than that of Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg) (6%) and Prevotella intermedia (Pi) (3%). 27% of cases showed mixed bacterial growth. 65% of patients were positive using molecular method. The rate of Aa (30%) was significantly higher than that of Pg (7%) and Pi (5%). The mixed PCR positive rate containing of Aa, Pg and Pi was (23%).
Conclusion: In this study, it was found that most of the bacteria isolated using culture and molecular methods were Aa, Pg and Pi, respectively. Although the detection frequencies of both techniques were similar, the specificity, sensitivity and bacterial detection speed of the PCR technique is obviously higher. Therefore, the use of molecular techniques is strongly recommended. However, both techniques seem to be suitable for microbiological diagnostics.