Abstract

Introduction: Periodontal disease is one of the most common oral diseases in human and it can cause extent systemic problems in body organs such as liver. Levels of liver enzymes such as ALT, AST and also ALP have been studied in liver damage and periodontal disease. Blood and saliva sample tests are two diagnostic methods for analyzing these enzymes in periodontal diseases. The objective of this study was to compare blood and whole saliva levels of the mentioned liver enzymes in patients with moderate and severe chronic periodontitis. Materials and methods: In the present cross-sectional study, levels of liver enzymes (ALP, ALT and AST) in blood and saliva samples obtained from 31 systemically healthy subjects with chronic periodontitis, of both sexes aged 20-55 years were examined. After bio-chemical analysis, samples were statistically compared by paired t-test and McNemar's test using SPSS 20 software. The level of significance in the tests was considered 0.05. Results: the results showed that enzymatic activity of ALP and ALT enzymes in the blood was significantly higher than saliva (P<0/001). However, Average levels of AST enzymes did not show significant difference in serum and saliva (P<0/001). Conclusion: the results of the present study showed that blood analysis is an accurate diagnostic method to measure the enzymatic activity of ALP and ALT due to the significant difference between salivary and serum levels of the liver enzymes.