Cross-Sectional Study of Periodontal Oral Dental Foci of Infection (PODFI) in Medically Compromised Patients at Lille University Hospital

In medically compromised patients with periodontitis at Lille University Hospital, PODFI risk is dominated by moderate-risk profiles (67.6%) with 32.4% high-risk and no low- or very-high-risk cases.

• Why it matters: Guidelines call for detecting and eliminating periodontal oral dental infection foci, but the distribution of PODFI risk levels in medically compromised patients remains poorly quantified.
• What they did: This retrospective, observational, cross-sectional single-center study (Sept 2024–Sept 2025) examined 39 medically compromised patients using periodontal examination and a recently developed PODFI risk classification (moderate, high, very high).
• The result: Generalized periodontal inflammation was very common (92%), with median 26 bleeding-on-probing sites and 71 plaque-positive sites linked by correlation (R = 0.52, p = 0.002); severe/active periodontitis predominated with 74.4% stage III or IV.