Periodontitis and cerebrovascular disease: A new novel in medicine

The aim of this review is to determine if there is a relationship between periodontal disease and stroke. The included case-control and cohort studies mediate the incidence of stroke and periodontal disease by analyzing different parameters. A literature review was carried out in PubMed, Scopus and Embase databases using the key word “stroke” AND “periodontal disease”. An amount of 932 articles came out from our research on these three databases. These articles were selected according to PRISMA criteria. The following inclusion criteria were established: studies conducted in humans, articles published in English and published in the last ten years. Exclusion criteria were: experimental studies on animals, articles published more than 10 years ago, non-English language articles, articles of nonindexed journals, and articles not directly related to the association between stroke and periodontitis. These criteria reduced the number of articles from 932 to 399. At the end, articles that appeared to be repeated in different databases have been eliminated: 254 articles remained. All these articles titles were reviewed by the authors, who decided whether or not to include them in the review. We selected an amount of 43 articles. These studies were reviewed by reading the titles and abstracts, and by finally selecting the ones with the same topic of this review. When titles or abstracts were not clear, the complete article was read. At the end 7 articles were selected. In addition, 2 systematic reviews and 1 article, cited in the discussion, and regarding the protocol used in patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases and periodontitis, were selected. The quality of these articles was evaluated through the JADAD system. In conclusion, patients with stroke have a higher prevalence of periodontitis.