RESUMO
AIM: To identify the diagnostic accuracy of gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) candidate biomarkers to discriminate periodontitis from the inflamed and healthy sites, and to compare the performance of two independent matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-8 immunoassays. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cross sectional study. GCF (N = 58 sites) was collected from healthy, gingivitis and chronic periodontitis volunteers and analysed for levels of azurocidin, chemokine ligand 5, MPO, TIMP-1 MMP-13 and MMP-14 by ELISA or activity assays. MMP-8 was assayed by immunofluorometric assay (IFMA) and ELISA. Statistical analysis was performed using linear mixed-effects models and Bayesian statistics in R and Stata V11. RESULTS: MMP-8, MPO, azurocidin and total MMP-13 and MMP-14 were higher in periodontitis compared to gingivitis and healthy sites (p < 0.05). A very high correlation between MPO and MMP-8 was evident in the periodontitis group (r = 0.95, p < 0.0001). MPO, azurocidin and total levels of MMP-8, MMP-13 and MMP-14 showed high diagnostic accuracy (≥0.90), but only MMP-8 and MPO were significantly higher in the periodontitis versus gingivitis sites. MMP-8 determined by IFMA correlated more strongly with periodontal status and showed higher diagnostic accuracy than ELISA. CONCLUSIONS: MPO and collagenolytic MMPs are highly discriminatory biomarkers for site-specific diagnosis of periodontitis. The comparison of two quantitative MMP-8 methods demonstrated IFMA to be more accurate than ELISA.