Clinical diagnosis of pulp inflammation based on pulp oxygenation rates measured by pulse oximetry.
BACKGROUND
The objective of this study was to investigate correlations between pulp oxygenation rates (%SpO(2)) and clinical diagnoses of reversible pulpitis (RP), irreversible pulpitis (IP), or pulp necrosis (PN).


METHODS
Sixty patients who presented with a tooth with endodontic pathology were grouped according to a clinical diagnosis of either RP (n = 20), IP (n = 20), or PN (n = 20). The clinical diagnosis was based on the patient's dental history, periapical radiographs, clinical inspection, and percussion and thermal sensitivity testing. Pulse oximetry (PO) was used to determine pulp oxygenation rates. For every patient, one additional endodontically treated tooth (negative control [NC], n = 60) and one additional healthy tooth with healthy pulp status (positive control [PC], n = 60) were evaluated. Analysis of variance, the Tukey HSD test, and the Student's t test were used for statistical analysis.


RESULTS
The mean %SpO(2) levels were as follows: RP: 87.4% (standard deviation [SD] ±2.46), IP: 83.1% (SD ±2.29), PN: 74.6% (SD ±1.96), PC: 92.2% (SD ±1.84), and NC: 0% (SD ±0.0). There were statistically significant differences between RP, IP, and PN compared with NC and PC and between RP, IP, and PN (all P ≤ .01).


CONCLUSIONS
The evaluation of pulp oxygenation rates by PO may be a useful tool to determine the different inflammatory stages of the pulp to aid in endodontic diagnosis.
Department of Endodontics, School of Dental Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. fsetzer@dental.upenn.edu
Frank C
FC
Setzer
Simony Hidee Hamoy
SH
Kataoka
Fernanda
F
Natrielli
Eudes
E
Gondim-Junior
Celso Luiz
CL
Caldeira
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003790:Dental Pulp Necrosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism; D003791:Dental Pulp Test / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010092:Oximetry; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism; D011671:Pulpitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D010100:Oxygen