1. Association between dental health and acute myocardial infarction.
- Author
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Mattila KJ, Nieminen MS, Valtonen VV, Rasi VP, Kesäniemi YA, Syrjälä SL, Jungell PS, Isoluoma M, Hietaniemi K, and Jokinen MJ
- Subjects
- Adult, Female, Finland, Humans, Lipids blood, Male, Middle Aged, Mouth Diseases complications, Myocardial Infarction microbiology, Oral Hygiene Index, Random Allocation, Risk Factors, Smoking adverse effects, Social Class, Myocardial Infarction etiology, Oral Health
- Abstract
Known risk factors for coronary heart disease do not explain all of the clinical and epidemiological features of the disease. To examine the role of chronic bacterial infections as risk factors for the disease the association between poor dental health and acute myocardial infarction was investigated in two separate case-control studies of a total of 100 patients with acute myocardial infarction and 102 controls selected from the community at random. Dental health was graded by using two indexes, one of which was assessed blind. Based on these indexes dental health was significantly worse in patients with acute myocardial infarction than in controls. The association remained valid after adjustment for age, social class, smoking, serum lipid concentrations, and the presence of diabetes. Further prospective studies are required in different populations to confirm the association and to elucidate its nature.
- Published
- 1989
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