Association of hepatic and systemic inflammation with localized stage II/III periodontitis in young males: The CHIEF oral health study

Abstract

Aim: To clarify the association between systemic and hepatic inflammation and localized periodontitis which has been reported to vary among races.

Materials and methods: The study included 1112 military males, aged 18-40 years, in Taiwan. Participants were classified as periodontally healthy/stage I (n = 796) or stage II/III periodontitis (n = 316), according to the 2017 world workshop criteria. Systemic and hepatic inflammation were defined by the highest tertiles of blood leukocyte counts (7.51 × 10³ /μl) and alanine aminotransferase (30 U/L), respectively. Multiple logistic regression analysis with adjustments for age, metabolic syndrome, betel nut consumption and smoking was carried out.

Results: There was a significant association between high systemic inflammation, irrespective of hepatic inflammation severity, and localized stage II/III periodontitis (odds ratio [OR], 1.62 [1.09-2.42] and 1.47 [1.00-2.15], respectively, in the presence of high or no hepatic inflammation. However, no significant association was found among participants with low systemic inflammation, irrespective of the severity of hepatic inflammation (OR, 1.31 [0.91-1.91]).

Conclusions: An association between hepatic inflammation and localized periodontitis in Taiwanese was observed only if systemic inflammation coexisted, possibly accounting for the reported differences in the association between Japanese and non-Asian populations in prior studies.

Keywords: alanine aminotransferase; inflammation; leukocyte counts; metabolic syndrome; racial differences; stage II/III localized periodontitis.