DIAGNÓSTICO DE ALTERAÇÕES DENTOALVEOLARES EM RECONSTRUÇÕES PANORÂMICAS TOMOGRÁFICAS DE DIFERENTES ESPESSURAS EM PESSOAS COM DOENÇA CARDIOVASCULAR

Abstract

In patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD), studies have shown that oral infections can contribute to the development of infective endocarditis (IE) and other heart diseases, which requires a correct diagnosis of oral lesions, including clinical and imaging evaluations. Most studies have evaluated the oral condition of these patients in two-dimensional imaging, which can make it difficult to detect lesions in the maxillomandibular complex and compromise the therapeutic decision of the dental surgeon. The present study aimed to compare the performance of panoramic reconstructions of different thicknesses, obtained from computed tomography scans of the maxilla and mandible, in detecting dental lesions in patients with CVD. The analyzes were performed by a single experienced examiner in panoramic reconstructions with a thickness of 25 mm (which resembles the image of a panoramic radiograph) and 1 mm. The following variables were analyzed: presence of dental caries, presence of periapical lesion and periodontal bone resorption, and its severity. It could be concluded that there was no significant difference in the detection of lesions regarding gender (p = 0.7600), nor regarding age when comparing females and males (p = 0.29426). Periapical lesions were the least frequent in the sample, periodontal bone loss was the most common and in all evaluated lesions there was a significant difference when comparing thicker and thinner sections (p = 0.0001). The sensitivity of thicker images was 0.9896 for periodontal involvement, followed by periapical lesion (0.8999) and, finally, by dental caries (0.7460). This shows that the diagnosis of dental lesions can be deficient when performed on panoramic radiographs, when compared to fine images of computed tomography.