title: The association between periodontitis and coronary heart disease: a quality assessment of systematic reviews.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The existence of an association between periodontitis and cardiovascular disease has been proposed by investigators in several clinical studies and further confirmed by the results of several systematic reviews. The aim of the authors' study was to assess the quality of published systematic reviews focused on the association between periodontitis and coronary heart disease (CHD) by using established systematic review assessment checklists.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two reviewers conducted a search for systematic reviews focusing on the association between periodontitis and CHD. Three independent reviewers appraised the quality of the selected 13 reviews by using an established and validated assessment tool for systematic reviews and another checklist. They gave each article a total score according to the number of criteria on each checklist that the article fulfilled.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nine reviews satisfied six or more items on the assessment tool, whereas two reviews each satisfied only one item. This assessment shows that published systematic reviews of the periodontitis-CHD association exhibit significant structural and methodological variation, which the authors further confirmed by using the second checklist.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Systematic reviews of the association between periodontitis and CHD exhibited significant differences in their methodological quality.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Clinicians should be aware that not all systematic reviews of the periodontitis-CHD association are conducted in a rigorous manner and should be capable of differentiating well-conducted reviews from poorly conducted ones.
authors.affiliation: College of Dentistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Avila-Ortiz
authors.forename: Veerasathpurush
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Allareddy
authors.forename: Georgia K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Satheesh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Elangovan
mesh_terms: D057189:Checklist; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D010518:Periodontitis / Q000150:complications*; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards