The relationship between juvenile and non-juvenile periodontitis, ABO blood groups and haemoglobin types.

This study was carried out to investigate the relationship between juvenile and non-juvenile peridontitis (JP, non-JP), ABO blood groups and haemoglobin type. The heamoglobin electrophoresis was determined by routine technique using cellulose acetate paper and tris buffer at pH 8.5. Tile blood grouping was carried out on all specimens. Forty Nigerian adolescent individuals were investigated, twenty of which were diagnosed as having JP while the remaining 20 were diagnosed a having plaque-induced chronic periodontitis (non JP). This latter group was used as the control group. All the JP patients were either of blood group B/AB, rhesus positive while the non-JP subjects had B rhesus positive/negative, O rhesus positive/negative or AB rhesus positive. The differences between the results of the test and the control groups were statistically significant P < 0.05. All the forty subjects (JP and non-JP) had the haemoglobin type A and none of them exhibited the S and C haemoglobin types. There is a need to further investigate the relationship between juvenile periodontitis, ABO blood group and the common haemoglobin types (A, AS, S, C, and SS) at molecular level.