The relationship between periodontal disease and acute myocardial infarct has been investigated, but without conclusive results. Objective: To estimate the magnitude of the risk of acute myocardial infarct among patients with periodontal disease. Method: A case-control study was conducted in the city of Salvador, Brazil. A total of 621 subjects, 207 cases, 207 hospital controls and 207 community controls were selected. The cases with proven clinical and laboratory diagnoses of a first acute myocardial infarct event and controls without any history of acute myocardial infarct were matched according to sex and age. All the cases and controls underwent: a) complete periodontal examination; b) lipid and blood glucose profile tests; c) weight, height and hip and waist circumference measurements; d) questionnaire on sociodemographic and lifestyle habit conditions. The chi-square test was used in the descriptive analysis to compare proportions. To estimate the association, multivariate conditional logistic regression was used, and odds ratio measurements adjusted according to a series of potential confounders were obtained. Results: Among the individuals with periodontal disease, the chance of presenting acute myocardial infarct was greater than among those without periodontal disease, both for the community controls (ORcrude = 1.57; 95% CI [0.98-2.52]) and for the hospital controls (ORcrude = 1.73; 95% CI [1.11-2.72]). After adjustment for age, sex, smoking habit, schooling level and blood glucose level, this chance increased for both groups: community controls (ORadjusted = 1.89; 95% CI [1.11-3.28]) and hospital controls (ORadjusted = 1.92; 95% CI [1.14-3.23]). The fraction of the risk of acute myocardial infarct attributable to periodontal disease was around 12%. Conclusions: The findings from this study indicate that periodontal disease contributed independently to an important proportion of the occurrences of acute myocardial infarct in the study population.
