Abstract
Oral care is important since elders such as stroke patients easily suffer from aspiration pneumonia because of dysphagia. It is very important to understand oral microbial flora in order to maintain oral hygiene. In the present study samples from the dorsal tongues of 30 elderly stroke patients (17 men and 13 women, average age: 70.1±6.9 years) and from the dorsal tongues and the pharynxes of 32 healthy elders (7 men and 25 women, average age: 78.4±7.6 years) were cultivated for Candida and aerobic bacteria detection. The quantative change and the change of normal microflora were investigated from the viewpoint of oral hygiene. Candida isolation rate was 47% from the dorsal tongue in the stroke patients group and 59% from the dorsal tongue in the healthy elders group, which shwed no significance between the two groups. When compared among the positive (more than 10E+5CFU/mL) subjects at the dorsal tongue, however, the rate was 47% in the stroke patients and 12.5% in the healthy elders. The number of positive subjects in the stroke patients was significantly higer (p<0.01: Fisher's exact probability test) than that in the healthy elders. P.aeruginosa was more frequently positive isolated both from the dorsal tongue of the stroke patients and from the dorsal tongue and the pharynx of the healthy elders as a result of aerobic bacterial culture.
But, the difference wasn't recognized between health elders group and elderly stroke patients group in the positive rate of P.aeruginosa, and the isolation of P. aeruginosa wasn't characteristic in stroke patients.It could think that Candida was isolated the positivity (more than 10 E+5 CFU/mL) to be characteristic in stroke patients, and thought that Candida positivity of the dorsal tongue was useful as a reference item in the oral microbial inspection.
