Bacteria have been shown in atheromas of coronary and carotid arteries. These studies required the excision of lesions. The objective of this study was to test if specific periopathogens can be detected from coronary artery plaque using a balloon catheter as a retrieval tool and if concordance exists between target bacteria in the dental plaque (DP) and the coronary atheroma (CA) from the same patients with periodontitis. 23 subjects (14m & 9 f), diagnosed with coronary artery disease (CAD) participated in the study. Ages ranged from 47 to 85. Periodontal assessment was determined as moderate; 2-4 mm attachment loss, or severe; > 4mm loss. Dental plaque was pooled from 6 teeth of each subject. Following percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), adherent material from balloon catheters, along with matched dental plaque samples, were subjected to PCR amplification with pathogen specific primers for the 16S rRNA of P. gingivalis, B. forsythus, A. actinomycetemcomitans, F. nucleatum and Chlamydia pneumoniae (Cp). Frequency of microbial DNA in subjects with moderate (MP) and severe periodontitis (SP) is shown below:

		Pg	Bf	Fn	Aa	Cp
MP	Dental Plaque	7	8	4	2	0
(n=16)	Atheroma	4	2	1	0	0
SP	Dental Plaque	4	5	2	1	0
(n=7)	Atheroma	4	0	0	0	0

Pg DNA in DP and CA was found in 5 cases (3 MP and 2 SP). A single case exhibited presence of Bf in DP and CA. 2 MP cases showed Pg & Bf and Fn & Bf in respective atheromas. This study shows that periopathogens can be detected on PTCA catheters, that there is low concordance in both DP and CA, but supports further research with an increased sample number to investigate the association between periodontal disease and CAD. Funded by Research Infrastructure Grant & School of Dentistry funds, CWRU.

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