Camparison of Oral Candida Flora in Patients with Coronary Atherosclerosis and Healthy People

Background: Coronary atherosclerosis is a common disorder of the arteries and may block the arteries and cause heart disease. Recently several studies have indicated a role of infectious agents in atherosclerosis and obstructive coronary artery disease. Candida species are normal flora of the human oral cavity and can enter in the blood stream and damage inner walls of coronary arteries by several mechanisms. Thus this study was done to compare the oral candida flora in healthy people and patient with coronary atherosclerosis.

Patients and Methods: In this study, we compared oral candida flora in 90 patients with coronary atherosclerosis and 90 healthy people. All specimens were obtained from oral cavity by swab and cultured on CHOROMagar Candida medium. Identification of isolated colonies was done by RapID yeast plus system. The data were analyzed using the chi-square test.

Results: In this study 55.4% (N=61) of patient and 44.6% (N=49) of control group had candida colonization in their oral cavity. Candida albicans was the most common species isolated in both groups. Candida glabrata, Candida krusei, Candida tropicalis and Candida parapsilosis were the most common non albicans species. Although no significant difference was observed between candida colonization in patients and controls, the differences between isolated colony numbers in patient and healthy group were significant (p=0.001).

Conclusions: Hypercolonization of candida species in oral cavity may lead to invasion and enter the organism in the blood stream and damage the coronary arteries.