Association of aggressive periodontitis with reduced erythrocyte counts and reduced hemoglobin levels.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Studies have shown that erythrocyte counts and hemoglobin levels are reduced in patients with chronic periodontitis, suggesting that this condition may be associated with anemia of chronic disease. Although increased leukocyte counts have been reported in aggressive periodontitis, very little is known about the effects of aggressive periodontitis on erythrocyte counts. The present study was undertaken to determine whether generalized aggressive periodontitis is associated with reduced erythrocyte counts and reduced hemoglobin levels.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The present study was conducted as a case-control study in which 64 patients with generalized aggressive periodontitis were categorized as cases and 58 periodontally healthy individuals were categorized as controls. Erythrocyte parameters (such as erythrocyte count, hemoglobin concentration, and hematocrit and erythrocyte indices) and clinical parameters (such as gingival index, plaque index, probing depth, clinical attachment level and percentage of severe sites) were recorded.

RESULTS

Significant differences were observed between cases and controls in mean erythrocyte count (4.45 ± 0.6 × 10(6) erythrocytes/μL and 4.78 ± 0.56 × 10(6) erythrocytes/μL respectively, p = 0.002) and hemoglobin level (12.43 ± 1.83 g/dL and 13.53 ± 1.64 g/dL, respectively, p = 0.001). Other erythrocyte parameters, such as hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin, were also significantly lower among cases compared with controls. Logistic regression analyses showed that generalized aggressive periodontitis was significantly associated with lower erythrocyte counts ( p = 0.032) and a lower hemoglobin concentration ( p = 0.017).

CONCLUSION

The findings of the present study suggest that patients with generalized aggressive periodontitis tend to have lower erythrocyte counts and lower hemoglobin levels compared with periodontally healthy controls. This suggests that generalized aggressive periodontitis, like chronic periodontitis, may be associated with a risk for anemia of chronic disease.