Year : 2015

Volume : Volume 5

Issue : Issue 2

Address for correspondence :
Dr. Shabeer Mohamed Madani
shabeermohd_@hotmail.com

Abstract

Background:  The international definition of low birth weight adopted by the “29th World Health Assembly” in 1976 is – a birth weight of less than 2500 gms (upto and including 2499 gms). Preterm or premature birth is usually defined as a gestation age of less than 37 weeks. In the last decade great interest has been generated to support the hypothesis that subclinical infection is an important cause of preterm birth. The hypothesis linking subclinical infection and premature birth is that the microbial toxins produced such as endotoxin (LPS) enter the uterine cavity during pregnancy by ascending from lower genital tract or blood bourne route from a non genital focus (pyelonephritis, periodontitis, etc.) Hence this study ahs been designed to determine the periodontal status of mothers with low birth weight and normal birth weight delivery at Institute of Maternal and Child Health (IMCH) Medical college, Kozhikode and to assess the effect of periodontal status of mothers on birth weight of infants. A matched case control study with a selection ratio 1:1 was performed using 100 cases and 100 controls delivered at IMCH, Medical College Kozhikode. Periodontal examination of the selected patients were done with a Williams graduated probe and data regarding the clinical attachment level, probing pocket depth at four sites per tooth and gingival index  given by H. Loe and Silness was recorded. Gingival status of the pre term low birth weights was compared to that of normal birth weight mothers and was found to be statistically insignificant. In the present study mean CAL for cases was 2.64±0.67mm/site( table 2, graph 2). The difference noticed is tested statistically (t value 6.8) and is found to be highly significant.

Keywords: Periomedicine, Pregnancy outcomes, Periodontitis, Low birth weight infants.