The observed end points were CVD

death, myocardial infarction, unstable angina or ischaemic stroke during a follow-up period of the average of 519 days (range 138–924 days) [14]. The study design was approved by the Ethics Committee of Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland, and an informed consent was obtained from each subject enroled in the study. Radiographic dental status.  The dental status of the patients was acquired by panoramic tomography taken after the admission to the hospital, as previously described [15]. The presence or absence of erupted teeth and periodontal breakdown was recorded. Patients were divided into three groups: edentulous, without periodontitis (later in the text referred to as non-periodontitis) NVP-AUY922 cell line and with periodontitis. Periodontal breakdown was established when the distance from the cementoenamel junction to the alveolar bone margin was more than 4 mm. The non-periodontitis patients had no radiographic evidence of periodontal breakdown [15, 16]. Serum analysis and sampling time points.  Baseline serum samples were

taken within 48 h of the arrival to the hospital. Follow-up samples were taken after 1 week, 3 months and 1 year of hospitalization owing to the ACS event. IgG and IgA antibody levels to A. actinomycetemcomitans and P. gingivalis were measured by multiserotype ELISA [17]. The inter-assay coefficient of variation was 6.6% and 6.2% for A. actinomycetemcomitans IgG and IgA assays, ABC294640 concentration and 5.3% and 5.6% for P. gingivalis

IgG and IgA assays, respectively. The cut-off limits for seronegatives and seropositives were 2.0 EU and 5.0 EU for IgA- and IgG-class antibody levels, respectively, corresponding to the mean + 1.5 × SD Oxymatrine of periodontally healthy individuals [17]. Serum IgG and IgA levels to human HSP60 were determined by ELISA [18]. The inter-assay coefficient of variation was 4.6 for IgA and 5.2% for IgG assays, respectively. In all antibody assays, the intra-assay coefficient of variation was 2.0–2.5%. High-sensitive C-reactive protein concentrations were quantified by immunoturbidometry [19]. All serum samples were taken after overnight fasting, and the laboratory analyses were performed in a blind fashion. Salivary bacterial analysis.  Salivary samples were taken at baseline within 48 h of arrival to the hospital. Paraffin-stimulated samples were collected and processed as previously described [14]. Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans and P. gingivalis were PCR-amplified using species-specific primers as previously described [20]. Chromosomal DNA isolated from A. actinomycetemcomitans ATCC 43718 and P. gingivalis W50 strains were used as positive controls and sterile water as negative controls in each series of PCR reactions, which were performed blinded for the study groups. Statistics.  The significance of differences was analysed by Mann–Whitney U-test, Chi-square test and Wilcoxon signed ranks test.