Research Information System University of Greifswald

Schwahn C*¹, Frenzel S², Holtfreter B³, van der Auwera-Palitschka S^2,4, Pink C⁵, Bülow R⁶, Friedrich N⁷, Völzke H⁸, Biffar R¹, Alzheimer's D, Kocher T³, Grabe H^2,4

1 - Zentrum für Zahn-, Mund- und Kieferheilkunde / Poliklinik für Zahnärztliche Prothetik, Alterszahnheilkunde und Medizinische Werkstoffkunde

2 - Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie

3 - Zentrum für Zahn-, Mund- und Kieferheilkunde / Poliklinik für Zahnerhaltung,Parodontologie, Endodontologie; Präventive Zahnmedizin und Kinderzahnheilkunde

4 - Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen Rostock / Greifswald Teilstandort Greifswald

5 - Zentrum für Zahn-, Mund- und Kieferheilkunde / Poliklinik für Kieferorthopädie

6 - Zentrum für Radiologie / Institut für Diagnostische Radiologie und Neuroradiologie

7 - Institut für Klinische Chemie und Laboratoriumsmedizin

8 - Institut für Community Medicine / Abt. SHIP KEF

Introduction: We investigated the relationship between periodontal treatment and pre-clinical Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: In this quasi-experimental design, 177 periodontally treated patients from the "Greifswald Approach to Individualized Medicine" cohort, which used the same protocols as the population-based Study of Health in Pomerania TREND (SHIP-TREND), and 409 untreated subjects from SHIP-TREND were analyzed. Subjects were younger than 60 years at the magnetic resonance imaging examination, with a median observation period of 7.3 years. Imaging markers for brain atrophy in late-onset AD and brain aging were used as the outcomes. Results: Robust to sensitivity analyses, periodontal treatment had a favorable effect on AD-related brain atrophy (-0.41; 95% confidence interval: -0.70 to -0.12; P = .0051), which corresponds to a shift from the 50th to the 37th percentile of the outcome distribution. For brain aging, the treatment effect was uncertain. Conclusion: Periodontitis is related to pre-clinical AD in our population.