Correlation between Levels of Sulcular and Capillary Blood Glucose in Screening of Diabetes Mellitus in Chronic Periodontitis Patients

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is a heterogenous metabolic disease characterized by impaired glucose tolerance and altered carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. The number of diabetics in Indian population is increasing at an alarming pace, the WHO has predicted that by 2025, about 37 million people will be diabetics. Diabetes mellitus remains undiagnosed in approximately 50% of the patients actually suffering from the disease. Importantly, the prevalence of diabetes in periodontitis patients is twice as high when compared to periodontally healthy subjects. Hence, a large number of patients with periodontitis may have undiagnosed diabetes mellitus. AIM OF THE STUDY: To evaluate the correlation between gingival sulcular blood glucose and capillary blood glucose level for screening of diabetes mellitus in chronic periodontitis patients. MATERIALS AND METHOD: 30 diabetic and 30 non-diabetic subjects with moderate to severe chronic periodontitis were enrolled and subjected to routine periodontal examination. Blood oozing from the gingival sulcus is collected using a micropipette from the gingival crevice of maxillary anterior teeth and transported to a test-strip of a self monitoring glucometer (Accu-check Active). Finger-prick capillary blood glucose levels values are considered as the control. The data was statistically analyzed using Mann-Whitney U-test, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test and Spearman’s Rank correlation coefficient test. RESULTS: The blood glucose values by both the methods i.e, gingival crevicular and fingerprick capillary are highly positively significantly correlated (p<0.0001). Also in both the groups, the reliability of the two procedures is significantly high (p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: The results obtained from this study suggests that blood expressed during routine periodontal examination may be used as a rapid chair-side screening procedure for diabetes mellitus in a dental office setting.