Biomedical subjects

Dora Servidio

Publications and source records attributed to Dora Servidio.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Molecular detection of Treponema denticola and Porphyromonas gingivalis in carotid and aortic atheromatous plaques by FISH: report of two cases.

Treponema denticola and Porphyromonas gingivalis have been identified in atheromatous plaques of two patients suffering from atherosclerosis by PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). The use of the FISH technique suggested that these periodontopathic micro-organisms might be metabolically active within the wall of arteries, under the atherosclerotic lesion.

Aged↗

PubMed2005

Treponema denticola infection is not a cause of false positive Treponema pallidum serology.

It has long been assumed that parodontal disease can be a cause of false positive results in syphilis serology, but so far there are no definitive data supporting this hypothesis. In this study we tested 250 serum samples obtained from blood donors. All of them were negative when routinely screened for antibodies against Treponema pallidum. Then, all these samples were tested by immunoenzymatic (ELISA) and Western Blot (WB) assays to investigate reactivities against T. denticola. Thirteen samples showed a strong positivity when tested by both methods. When tested by WB against T. pallidum no sample met the positivity criteria. Nevertheless, bands with molecolar weights of about 30-35 KDa (endoflagellar core antigens) were recognized. All the 13 subjects serologically T. denticola positive underwent oral clinical and radiological observation: all showed a very poor parodontal status (CPSS > 103). Eleven crevicular fluid samples out of the total of 13 patients were T. denticola positive by Real Time PCR carried out using a LightCycler system. In this study we demonstrated that the presence of T. denticola in the crevicular fluid samples obtained from patients with a severe periodontal status and/or a positive serology against T. denticola is not a cause of false positive results in syphilis serology.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗

PubMed2004

Heart rate variability: a sensitive parameter for detecting abnormal cardiocirculatory changes during a stressful dental procedure.

BACKGROUND: The authors conducted a study to evaluate the sensitivity of heart rate variability, or HRV, in quantifying the cardiocirculatory reaction to dental stress compared with other clinical parameters more frequently used in clinical practice. METHODS: Twenty-five healthy subjects (15 men and 10 women aged 19 through 73 years) who underwent dental extractions were enrolled in the study. The authors measured systolic blood pressure, or SBP; diastolic blood pressure, or DBP; heart rate, or HR; and HRV at baseline, immediately after local anesthetic was administered, during the dental extraction and five minutes after the dental extraction. Time domain measures of HRV were based on interbeat intervals and were obtained by using standard deviations of the R-R intervals, which were calculated during a five-minute period in a continuous electrocardiographic record. RESULTS: Analysis of variance for repeated measures showed no time-related difference between the four study periods with regard to SBP and DBP. However, HR values were significantly different in three of the four periods, and HRV values were significantly different in all four testing periods. Furthermore, HRV values exhibited greater variability in the maximum changes recorded during dental extractions compared with HR values (0 to 80 milliseconds versus 0 to 31 beats/minute, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: HRV is a highly sensitive parameter for quantifying the sympathetic drive to the heart during a cardiovascular reaction to a dental operation. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Clinicians may find that HRV evaluation is useful in monitoring patients with heart disease to detect early signs of cardiac impairment related to local, high sympathetic activity and to prevent cardiovascular emergencies.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Effectiveness of metronidazole gel on cyclosporine-induced gingival overgrowth in heart transplant patients.

To evaluate the efficacy of metronidazole on cyclosporine-induced gingival overgrowth (GO), a prospective intra-subject double-blind longitudinal study was performed on six heart transplant patients with GO. All patients underwent scaling and root planing before any treatment. Metronidazole gel (Elyzol, Cabon) was then applied in two of the four anterior hemi-sextants of each subject, following a balanced random pre-programmed list, with a placebo gel being applied to the remaining two hemi-sextants. Plaque index (PI), bleeding on probing (BP) and probing depth (PD) were recorded for all teeth of the four anterior hemi-sextants before and at 1, 2, 3, and 4 months after gel application. A general linear model was fitted and ANOVA for repeated measurements with split-plot design and Chi-square analysis were used for statistical analysis. PD significantly decreased after 1 month following both treatments. Analogous results were obtained as regards PI and BP. No statistically significant difference was detected between results obtained with metronidazole and placebo. However, PD in the group of teeth treated with placebo significantly increased after 4 months, while PD values obtained from teeth treated with metronidazole remained statistically unchanged with respect to the 1st month. In conclusion, short-term results suggest that metronidazole and placebo are equally effective in reducing periodontal parameters and GO when associated with scaling and root planing. Long-term results, however, showed greater efficacy of metronidazole with respect to placebo in controlling cyclosporine-induced GO.

Analysis of Variance↗