Synergistic Interactions of Fungal Infections, Obesity, and Inflammatory in Diabetic Patients: An Anatomical and Inflammatory Biomarker Analysis

This piece of the research is about ascertaining if there is any synergistic detrimental effect between fungal infections, obesity, and systemic inflammation toward a periodontal disease state in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) patients. The case-control study comprised 150 subjects: 75, diagnosed with T2DM from Baghdad-Iraq, and 75 healthy controls. Oral swabs and blood samples were obtained to analyze fungal colonization and inflammatory markers such as CRP and ESR, and anthropometric parameters including BMI. The investigators isolated the fungi by microscopy, culture, and the VITEK® 2 system. The investigators measured CRP by an immunodiffusion test and standardized ESR by the Westergren technique. The results showed oral fungal infections in diabetic patients were significantly higher (77.3%) than that of controls (18.7%). The most common species was Candida albicans in 42.7% of diabetic patients as compared to 16% of the control group. From the perspective of patients with T2DM, the inflammatory markers showed significant elevation. The CRP average was 45.5 ± 1.2 ng/mL, while ESR stood at 50 ± 2.6 mm/hour. In the control category, the CRP levels were 2.6 ± 0.12 ng/mL, and ESR ranged between 5.3 ± 0.9. In comparison, obesity (BMI equal to or greater than 30 kg/m^2) is supposedly more prevalent in diabetic patients, being reported at 38.7 percent compared with only 2.7 percent in controls, thus emphasizing the drastic role in metabolic and inflammatory disorders. Thus, the study pulls in hyperglycemia and fungal dysbiosis with obesity-mediated inflammation (raised CRP and ESR) together as working in concert that results into the further breakdown of relatively healthy periodontal conditions of patients with T2DM.