The Effectiveness of Salivary Sampling for the Detection and Quantification of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans in Periodontitis Patients

The objective was to evaluate using unstimulated saliva in detecting <i>Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans</i> and to compare the saliva and subgingival and mucosa membrane occurrence of this periodontal pathogen in patients diagnosed with advanced periodontitis. Patients with advanced forms of periodontitis (<i>n</i> = 220; mean age: 54.03 ± 03 years) at stage III/IV were sampled. Unstimulated saliva, buccal cheek mucosa, and pooled subgingival plaque samples were collected. The identification of <i>A. actinomycetemcomitans</i> was performed using qPCR. A descriptive analysis and Wilcoxon test and analysis of variance were performed. <i>A. actinomycetemcomitans</i> was isolated from 28.18% of the subjects. A total of 660 samples were obtained, 220 from unstimulated saliva, 220 from buccal cheek mucosa surfaces, and 220 from pooled subgingival plaque samples. <i>A. actinomycetemcomitans</i> was isolated from 21.80% of unstimulated saliva, 19.50% of buccal cheek swabs, and 17.70% of subgingival samples. There was a statistically significant difference between the presence of <i>A. actinomycetemcomitans</i> in the unstimulated saliva samples and in the buccal cheek mucosa swab samples and pooled subgingival plaque samples (<i>p</i> < 0.001). These results suggest that in advanced periodontitis, unstimulated saliva is representative of pooled subgingival plaque/buccal cheek mucosa samples and its use is adequate in the oral detection of <i>A. actinomycetemcomitans</i> in a cohort of patients with stage III and IV periodontitis.