title: Herpesvirus carriage in saliva and posttreatment apical periodontitis: searching for association.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Herpesvirus infection can cause immunosuppression and then act as a modifier of apical periodontitis, influencing the disease severity and response to treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate if herpesvirus infection, as inferred by salivary carriage, may influence the endodontic treatment outcome.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study population included 72 patients who had root canals treated more than 1 year previously because of necrotic pulps and apical periodontitis. At the follow-up examination, 27 of these patients presented with posttreatment apical periodontitis (failure) and 45 individuals exhibited healed/healing periradicular tissues (success). Saliva was collected from these individuals, DNA was extracted, subjected to multiple displacement amplification, and screened by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays for the presence of 6 herpesviruses: herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 (HSV-1/2), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6), and human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Except for HSV-1/2, all other herpesviruses were detected in saliva from both healed/healing and diseased groups. HHV-8 was the most frequent herpesvirus found in saliva (84% in success, 89% in failure), followed by HCMV (22% in success, 30% in failure), EBV (16% in success, 18.5% in failure) and HHV-6 (7% in success, 15% in failure). No significant association of herpesvirus carriage in saliva with poor treatment outcome was discernible in the population studied (P > .05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Data from the present study suggest that herpesvirus infection may not influence the outcome of endodontic treatment. Further longitudinal studies are warranted to confirm these findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endodontics and Molecular Microbiology Laboratory, Estácio de Sá University, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Bianca P S
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Guilherme
authors.forename: Dennis C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Isabela N
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: Rôças
authors.forename: José C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Provenzano
authors.forename: Kátia R N
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: José F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Siqueira
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019232:Dental Restoration Failure; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006564:Herpesviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010485:Periapical Periodontitis / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy* / Q000821:virology; D012390:Root Canal Therapy; D012463:Saliva / Q000821:virology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral