Effect of granulocytopenia on oral microbial relationships in patients with acute leukemia

An Assessment of the Number of Cariogenic Bacteria in the Saliva of Children with Chemotherapy-Induced Neutropenia

“…Therefore, non-invasive microbiological tests of the oral cavity provide important information for the prevention of systemic infections in patients undergoing anticancer therapy [15]. Peterson et al studied the number of bacteria in the subgingival and supragingival dental plaque in patients with acute leukemia accompanied by gingivitis or periodontitis [16]. In that study, microbiological tests of the dental plaque were performed before chemotherapy and on the 14 th day of myelosuppressive anticancer therapy, when the majority of patients had severe neutropenia (< 100/mm 3 ).…”

“…The results showed that the presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria such as Veillonella spp., Neisseria spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus spp. in the dental plaque is highly correlated with the degree of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia [16]. Evaluating quantitative changes in the bacterial flora of the oral cavity and pharynx in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and in healthy children, Krzeminski and Majda found a general tendency for the population of bacteria to increase in children with ALL, although the growth was not statistically significant in every case [17].…”

<i>Dialister pneumosintes</i> Bacteremia Caused by Dental Caries and Sinusitis

“…This phenomenon may be applicable in the present case (22). Dental problems have been known to cause systemic infections in immunosuppressed patients with cancer (23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28), and providing appropriate oral hygiene throughout the administration of chemotherapy may prevent or reduce the incidence and severity of oral complications (29). In the present case, intervention and continuous treatment of the dental caries had been performed by a dentist until one year prior to admission; however, the patient stopped visiting the dental clinic during follow-up, which induced the lifethreatening D. pneumosintes bacteremia.…”

Periodontal infection in cancer patients treated with high-dose chemotherapy

“…Nevertheless, at present the relative contribution of gingivitis and periodontitis to systemic infection in neutropenic cancer patients is largely unknown. Figures on the incidence of so-called acute periodontal infections reported in studies performed in the 1980s show significant disparity [30,32,34,35,36,39]. Initially, 28% of all clinically defined infections in 22 leukemia patients who developed neutropenic fever during remission-induction therapy were reported to be periodontal [30].…”

“…mucositis), there is evidence that preexisting infections around the teeth (periodontal infections, e.g. gingivitis and periodontitis) are associated with fever and sepsis in these patients [15,30,34,36,44].…”