Research performance of biomarkers from biofluids in periodontal disease publications

Background/purposeThe biomarkers in biofluids are useful tools for evaluating the activity of periodontal disease. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of publications on biomarkers and periodontal disease for four categories of biofluid.Materials and methodsA total of 2455 documents of “original article” published in the Science Citation Index database between 1996 and 2010 were analyzed for this study. The biofluids in these original articles were subdivided into four categories of specimen: saliva, serum, plasma, and gingival sulcus fluid (GSF; including gingival crevicular fluid). The total number of articles and the number of citations per publication were defined as quantitative and qualitative indexes in this study. The h-index, an indicator of both quality and quantity of scientific publications, was also included in the analysis.ResultsThe standard errors of the annual citations per publication for periodontal disease articles including topics on serum (2.4) or on saliva (2.9) were less than those for articles including topics on plasma (5.1) or on GSF (4.9). The lesser variation in the number citations reflected the consistent quality of periodontal disease articles concerning serum and saliva topics. The h-index was not significantly different among articles including plasma (66), serum (59), or saliva (55). The research performance of articles including GSF (h-index = 20) was worse than for the other three types of biofluids.ConclusionResults of h-index indicate that biomarkers in saliva, as well as in serum and plasma, are good indicators for use in studying periodontal disease.