FRIDAY, June 15 (HealthDay News) -- New U.S. guidelines
recommending limited use of antibiotics in dental patients have not
led to an increase in cases of the heart condition infective
endocarditis, a new study says.
The number of cases has actually decreased since the American
Heart Association guidelines were introduced in 2007, researchers
found.
Infective endocarditis is a bacterial infection of the heart
lining, valves or blood vessels. It can occur when bacteria enter
the bloodstream through wounds in the gums that arise during
invasive dental procedures such as a tooth extraction. Left
untreated, the infection can cause death.
Previously, many patients received preventive antibiotics before
having dental procedures. The new guidelines advised that patients
take antibiotics before dental procedures only if they are at risk
from infective endocarditis.
These patients include those with artificial heart valves,
transplanted hearts with abnormal heart valve function, previous
infective endocarditis, and specific heart defects.
In this study, researchers examined data from Olmsted County,
Minn., and found 22 patients diagnosed with infective endocarditis
between 1999 and 2010. Projected nationally, the researchers said
the data suggests that infective endocarditis occurred in two to
three of every 100,000 people in the United States before the new
guidelines, and in one of every 100,000 after the new
guidelines.
The researchers also found that the number of infective
endocarditis cases diagnosed in the United States each year went
from 15,300 to 17,400 in 1999-2006 to 14,700 to 15,500 in
2007-2009.
The study was published June 11 in
Circulation.
"We were giving preventive antibiotics like we were treating an entire iceberg, when we only needed to treat the very tip of that iceberg," lead author Dr. Daniel DeSimone, an internal medicine resident at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said in an American Heart Association news release. "Millions of people once getting antibiotics now are not."
DeSimone added, "These findings are reassuring, but additional
studies are needed to further support our findings."
Because Olmsted residents are primarily white, the findings
might not apply to other races, the researchers said.
More information
The American Dental Association has more about
http://www.ada.org/2583.aspx.
