Quantification of periodontal pathogens in vascular, blood, and subgingival samples from patients with peripheral arterial disease or abdominal aortic aneurysms.

Background: The aim of this investigation is to quantify periodontal pathogens (Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Campylobacter rectus, and Tannerella forsythia) in vascular, blood, and subgingival samples. As a secondary objective, two molecular bacterial identification methods (nested polymerase chain reaction [PCR] and quantitative PCR [qPCR]) are compared.

Methods: Seventy consecutive patients provided a vascular lesion, a blood sample, and 36 subgingival samples.