Could periodontitis represent a risk for contamination of transfused blood units?

Periodontitis is a chronic disease associated with a dysbiotic oral microbiota that, in predisposed hosts, causes the perseverance, for years and years, of a local inflammation of periodontal tissues, promoting the progressive destruction of the supporting structures of the teeth 1 . Recent evidence supports the potential deleterious impacts of periodontitis, not only topically, but also on systemic health and mortality 2,3 . Periodontitis has been related with increased risk of developing or manifesting diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disorders, hypertension, cancer, chronic renal disease, pneumonia, rheumatoid arthritis, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and obstructive lung diseases 4-7 . Moreover, the presence of oral pathogens in the circulation has been associated with atheroma formation and dyslipidaemia 4 . Considering that periodontitis is the sixth most frequent disease in the world, with its severe form affecting 10% of the population, all the possible implications on global health should be analysed and investigated 8 . Oral pathogens can spread in the bloodstream, and patients with periodontitis can have raised levels of markers of systemic inflammation, such as C-reactive proteins; in contrast, a decrease in systemic inflammation was documented in subjects who underwent periodontal therapy 9-12 . There is robust evidence of the presence