COMPARISON OF DNA-PROBE AND ELISA MICROBIAL ANALYSIS-METHODS AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH ADULT PERIODONTITIS

THE PURPOSES OF THIS STUDY WERE TWO-FOLD: to compare the DNA probe and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) microbial identification te sts and correlate the levels of nicroorganisms with adult periodontiti s, A single plaque sample was taken from each of 2 sites in 52 patient s. Twelve of these patients were also sampled during and after treatme nt. The experimental site had clinical indicators of disease (bleeding on probing, probing and attachment loss of greater than or equal to 6 mm) and the contralateral site (control) was clinically healthy. A to tal of 176 plaque samples were collected, divided, processed, and sent for both types of quantitative microbial analyses. All of these sampl es were used to compare the DNA probe and ELISA methods while only the initial 104 pretreatment sites were used to correlate microorganisms/ method with clinical indicators of adult periodontitis. DNA probes wer e used to assay for A. actinomycetemcomitans, P. gingivalis, P. interm edia, E. corrodens, F. nucleatum, T. denticola, and C. rectus. An ELIS A utilizing monoclonal antibodies was used to assay for P. gingivalis, E. corrodens, T. denticola, and C. rectus. Comparison of the two meth ods revealed that the ELISA. test identified P. gingivalis and C. rect us significantly more often than the DNA probe method and that T. dent icola was detected more frequently with the DNA probe. The sensitiviti es and specificities varied widely among organisms and by test. P. gin givalis, as identified by ELISA, had the highest degree of sensitivity and specificity (0.90 and 0.82 respectively) to clinical indicators o f adult periodontitis.