Estimation of Salivary sCD14 in Children with Early Childhood Caries in Association with Pneumonia

Dental caries is a chronic disease among children and pneumonia is often seen in young children. Soluble CD14 (sCD14) protein is released by monocytes and changes in periodontal infection. The study aimed to estimate the level of salivary sCD14 in children with early childhood caries in association with pneumonia.

This case-control study was conducted on 52 children aged between 2 to 5 years. A total of 17 children who were caries free, with no past systemic illness; 17 children with dental caries with no history of systemic illness or dental treatment for caries, and 18 children with caries and pneumonia were included in the control and test groups respectively. Unstimulated saliva of all children was collected. All samples were tested using a commercial available sCD14 ELISA kit.

The sCD14 level was elevated in all three groups. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the mean level of sCD14 values between the groups. Control group had the highest mean sCD14 values (15070.99 ± 4296.44), followed by the caries group (13629.83 ± 5603.76) and pneumonia group (8566.86 ± 4778.81). There is a significant difference between the groups with p=0.001.

Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that sCD14 can be used as an indicator of the healthy functioning of the oral cavity.