At Transonic, we concern ourselves with worldwide cerebrovascular health. This is not a mere marketing choice, it’s the intent of our company’s founding family. For example, we engineered, designed, and built a set of tiny flow probes that had no chance of being profitable because the children at Boston Children's Hospital needed them.

So along that same line, we want to highlight two studies for the cerebrovascular safety and health of all who read this blog (and your friends, family, and anyone else with whom you will hopefully choose to share this information.)

Periodontal disease has recently been shown to strongly correlate with increased risk of CVA. The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study (ARIC) had an n of 1143 participants, 800 of which had periodontal disease, and 343 of which did not. They underwent oral health exams between 1996 and 1998 and brain MRI’s between 2011 and 2013. “Whitematter hyperintensities” are MRI presentations that represent a variety of cerebrovascular and neurological problems. In this study, patients with periodontal disease showed significantly higher occurrence of whitematter hyperintensities than the group with good oral health, to the point that those with periodontal disease had 56% greater chance of being in the highest whitematter intensity quartile (multivariable analysis.)

The researchers then performed a parallel study with an even larger population (n=5986) this time dividing them into three groups: those with good oral health, those with periodontal disease only, and those with comorbid periodontal disease and caries.

The resulting stats were clear: ischemic stroke occurred in 4.1% of patients with good oral health, in 6.9% of patients with periodontal disease, and in 10% of comorbid patients. This second study went farther than the first not only in population, but by considering major adverse cardiac events (MACE) as well as cerebrovascular issues. Simply, ischemic stroke returned a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.86, and MACE returned an HR of 1.36. Stroke HR’s were higher (thrombotic: 2.27; cardioembolic: 2.58).

Interestingly enough, CABG surgery is our largest product line at Transonic. But it shouldn’t be surprising that our seemingly disparate product lines overlap as often as they do—even in studies such as these—since the body is not a collection of discrete units, but an interdependent whole, a single organism. Health, as modern medicine continues to learn, is highly unified.

In any case, the study results are straightforward: periodontal health (or lack thereof) correlates directly with cerebrovascular health—and apparently cardiovascular health as well—though the researchers acknowledged, as all good scientists do, that correlation does not prove causation, and further studies need to be done to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanism and function of the oral-to-cerebral health connection.

Thanks for reading,

           Transonic Systems, Inc.

                        The Measure of Better Results

Reference:

Oral Health a Neglected Stroke Risk Factor?