Background and Objectives: Nitric oxide (NO) is a ubiquitous intercellular messenger molecule with important cardiovascular, neurological, and immune functions. In addition, it has been postulated that the pharmacological inhibition of NO or its actions may be therapeutically valuable in the disease management. The levels of nitric oxide may provide clues about the severity and the state of the underlying disease process. It could be an inflammatory biomarker that may enable clinicians to direct the environmentally based prevention or treatment programmes and to establish whether NO plays a role in the pathogenesis of periodontitis or not. Hence, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the salivary and the serum levels of NO in generalized chronic and aggressive periodontitis.The Study Design: Unstimulated whole saliva and serum samples were collected from a total of 60 subjects who were in the age group of 18-45 years, who participated in this study. They were divided into three equal groups with 20 subjects in each group; group A (healthy controls), group B (chronic periodontitis) and group C (aggressive periodontitis). The clinical parameters were assessed, based on the oral hygiene index simplified (OHI-S), the gingival index (GI), the probing pocket depth and the clinical attachment loss (CAL). A biochemical analysis was performed to evaluate and compare the salivary and the serum nitric oxide levels of the above groups. Statistical Analysis and Results:The statistical comparisons were done under the Griess Reaction. There were statistically significant salivary and serum levels of NO in the groups of periodontitis (group B and C) as compared to those in the healthy controls (group A). A significant positive correlation was found between the values of the salivary and the serum NO levels in chronic and aggressive periodontitis. Conclusion:Nitric oxide is a potent modulator of the inflammatory disease processes and under pathological conditions, NO has damaging effects. As there is a paucity in the studies which have compared chronic and aggressive periodontitis, this study paved an interest for combining the serum and the salivary analysis in comparing the levels of nitric oxide in chronic and aggressive periodontitis.

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A BSTRACT Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate candidal parameters in the oral cavity of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Materials and Methods: The samples included in the study were divided into two groups: group A, comprises 50 patients with type 2 DM, and group B, comprises 30 subjects who were nondiabetic. A nonrandom consecutive sampling technique was used to enroll the subjects for the study. The χ2 test was used to examine the characteristics of the samples. Results: The results found that there is a significant difference in saliva and swab for Candida growth between patients with type 2 DM and normal healthy individuals. Swab had shown slightly more Candida growth than saliva in group A (type 2 DM). No significant variation in Candida growth was found. Candida krusei was seen in normal healthy individuals alone. In antifungal susceptibility pattern to various antifungal agents, Candida tropicalis has shown a significant result for various antifungal agents whereas Candida albicans and Candida dubliniensis did not show any significant result for various antifungal agents used in group A (patients with type 2 DM). Conclusion: Diabetic individuals who are prone to a hyperglycemic state favors the growth and establishment of Candida species. Although a smaller percentage of multidrug-resistant Candida species has been observed in the saliva of patients with type 2 DM.

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