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(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2006;26:433.)
© 2006 American Heart Association, Inc.

Letters to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

Salivary Lysozyme and Prevalent Coronary Heart Disease. Possible Effects of Oral Health on Endothelial Dysfunction

Sok-Ja Janket; Jukka H. Meurman; Pekka Nuutinen; Markku Qvarnström; Martha E. Nunn; Alison E. Baird; Thomas E. Van Dyke; Judith A. Jones

From the Boston University School of Dental Medicine (S.-J.J., M.E.N., T.E.V.D., J.A.J.), Boston, Mass; the University of Helsinki Dental School (J.H.M., M.Q.), Helsinki, Finland; the Kuopio University Medical School (P.N.), Finland; and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (A.E.B.), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

Correspondence to Sok-Ja Janket, Boston University School of Dental Medicine, 100 East Newton St, Rm G-619, Boston, MA 02118. E-mail skjanket@bu.edu

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

To the Editor:

Total leukocyte count in the peripheral blood has been reported to be a significant predictor of future cardiac events and mortality.¹ Leukocyte-derived salivary lysozyme has been associated with oral infection,² and serum lysozyme has been implicated in impaired glucose metabolism,³ a contributory factor for endothelial dysfunction.⁴ We postulated that salivary lysozyme, therefore, would be associated with coronary heart disease (CHD).

This study was approved by the joint ethical committee of the Kuopio University Hospital and the University of Kuopio. We investigated the relationship between the CHD and lysozyme levels in a case-control study of 250 angiographically confirmed CHD patients and 250 sex- and age-matched controls, adjusting for age, sex, smoking, body mass index (BMI), diabetes mellitus, total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, hyperten sion, and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels 10 mg/L or 3 mg/L using logistic regression analyses. To assess the specific contribution of oral health through impaired glucose metabolism, we controlled for the Asymptotic Dental Score (ADS), an estimate of oral infection burden, comprising 5 major oral pathologies, namely pericoronitis, gingivitis, dental caries, root remnants, and the edentulous state.⁵

The basic characteristics of the cohort (Table I, available online at http://atvb.ahajournals.org) and cross-tabulation of lysozyme levels and other vascular risk factors are presented online (Table II, available online at http://atvb.ahajournals.org). After adjustment for established cardiac risk factors including age, sex, smoking, total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension, BMI, and CRP, odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs for the association between salivary lysozyme and CHD increased from 1.00 . . . [Full Text of this Article]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Qvarnstrom, S. Janket, J.A. Jones, P. Nuutinen, A.E. Baird, M.E. Nunn, T.E. Van Dyke, and J.H. Meurman Salivary Lysozyme and Prevalent Hypertension Journal of Dental Research, May 1, 2008; 87(5): 480 - 484. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. Watts, S.-J. Janket, T. E. Van Dyke, and J. A. Jones Periodontal Treatment and Glycemic Control in Diabetic Patients: the Problem of a Possible Hawthorne Effect Journal of Dental Research, April 1, 2006; 85(4): 294 - 295. [Full Text] [PDF]