title: Presence of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans on the Community Periodontal Index (CPI) teeth in periodontally healthy individuals.
abstract: The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans (A. actinomycetemcomitans) located at Community Periodontal Index (CPI) teeth versus randomly selected teeth to determine if the CPI teeth are representative of this bacteria subgingival colonization in periodontally healthy young individuals. Forty-four individuals between 18 and 27 years of age were included in the study (mean age 23.11 +/- 2.91 years). Pooled subgingival plaque samples were collected with paper points from the mesio-buccal aspect of the CPI teeth (10 teeth for adults and 6 teeth for persons under 20 years of age) and transported in reduced Ringer's solution to the culture medium. Sixty days following the first microbial analysis, new pooled microbial samples were obtained from the mesio-buccal aspect of 10 or 6 randomly selected teeth. The presence of A. actinomycetemcomitans was determined using a selective culture medium. Microbiological data were assessed by the Wilcoxon test (p < 0.05). A border line significance (p=0.51) was observed between CPI teeth and randomly selected teeth in terms of detecting the subgingival occurrence of A. actinomycetemcomitans. CPI teeth showed to be representative of A. actinomycetemcomitans subgingival colonization. Therefore, these results suggest that in periodontally healthy young individuals, CPI teeth could be an appropriate source of samples for the subginginval detection of this pathogen.
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics at Guarulhos University in São Paulo, Brazil. scortelli@prof.ung.br <scortelli@prof.ung.br>
authors.forename: Sheila Cavalga
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Cortelli
authors.forename: Magda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Feres
authors.forename: Jamil Awad
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Shibli
authors.forename: Luciene Cristina
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Figueiredo
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Padilha de Oliveira
authors.forename: José Roberto
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Cortelli
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016976:Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D003773:Dental Plaque / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D010512:Periodontal Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric