Undetected diabetes linked to heart attacks and gum disease

People with undetected glucose disorders run a higher risk of both myocardial infarction and periodontitis, according to a study by Swedish researchers

The results demonstrate the need of greater collaboration between dentistry and healthcare, say the researchers, and possibly of screening for diabetes at dental clinics.

Severe periodontitis is already known to be associated with a higher risk of myocardial infarction and lowered glucose tolerance, and diabetes to be more common in people who have suffered a heart attack. The Swedish researchers from the Karolinska Institutet have published their results in the journal Diabetes Care. The study was a collaboration between cardiologists and dentists and was based on data from a previous study. It included 805 myocardial infarction patients from 17 Swedish cardiology clinics and 805 controls, who were matched by age, sex and post code. The patients’ periodontitic status was assessed with X-rays and dysglycaemic status with glucose load tests. Participants with a diabetes diagnosis were excluded from the study, which left 712 patients and 731 controls with data on both periodontitic status and glucose status, the latter of which was divided into three categories: normal, reduced glucose tolerance, newly detected diabetes. Comparisons were made after adjusting for age, sex, smoking habits, education and civil status. Dysglycaemia is a key risk factor The study shows that previously undetected glucose disorders, which include diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance, were linked to myocardial infarction.

Undetected diabetes was also found to be linked to severe periodontitis. When myocardial infarction patients and controls were analysed separately, the association was clearer in the patients than in the controls, which is possibly because many of the controls were very healthy and few had severe periodontitis and undetected diabetes. ‘Our findings indicate that dysglycaemia is a key risk factor in both severe periodontitis and myocardial infarction and that the combination of severe periodontitis and undetected diabetes further increases the risk of myocardial infarction,’ says the study’s lead author Anna Norhammar, cardiologist and associate professor at Karolinska Institutet’s department of medicine in Solna. The results substantiate previously known links between periodontitis and diabetes and show that such an association also exists in previously unknown diabetes. Extended collaboration between diabetes specialists and dentists According to the researchers, the findings should make diabetes specialists consider their patients’ dental health and the need for closer collaboration with dentists.