Abstract
PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of some periodontal pathogens in Italian adults with chronic periodontitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sample consisted of 2992 patients with a clinical diagnosis of chronic periodontitis, based on the criteria of the American Academy of Periodontology, sampled in the period 2013-2016: 2108 patients were from Northern, 690 from Central and 194 from Southern Italy. Porphyromonas gengivalis, Treponema denticola, and Tannerella forsythia were investigated in all patients of the present study, while Campylobacter rectus, Fusobacterium nucleatum and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans only in 2514 (84%) patients. Subgingival plaque samples of the four sites of greatest probing depth in each patient were used to obtain subgingival microbiota and then processed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Periodontal pathogens had the following presence respect to all amount of patients: Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans 16.1%, Campylobacter rectus 73.4%, Fusobacterium nucleatum 93.8%, Porphyromonas gengivalis 65.5%, Treponema denticola 66.4%, and Tannerella forsythia 72.7%. There are no significant statistical differences among geographic areas both for the total bacterial and the single species except for T. Denticola and C. Rectus, which prevalence was significantly higher in Southern Italy (P value <.05). The other investigated species were equally distributed among different regions. A. actinomycetemcomitans was the rarer species detected in this study, while F. nucleatum was the commonest. No differences among areas where observed as regard of the mean bacterial load except for F. Nucleatum whose prevalence in Northern Italy was lower then both in Central and Southern Italy (P value <.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study didn't show different geographic distribution of periodontal pathogens among Italian population of the three areas investigated. The homogeneity of the results could be related to genetic and environmental factors.