Analysis of the Microbial Composition of Tongue Coatings in Elderly Patients with Heart Failure
ZHANG Yi
WU Ruhong
ZHAO Guoqiang
LI Jing
Abstract：Objective: To analyze the microbial composition of the tongue coating in elderly patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Methods: A total of 25 elderly CHF patients (CHF group) and 20 healthy volunteers (control group) were selected from Inner Mongolia People's Hospital between January 2023 and June 2023. Tongue coating samples were collected before breakfast, and high-throughput sequencing based on 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA genes was used to describe the microbial community. Results: There were no statistically significant differences in ACE, Chao, Shannon, and Simpson indices between the control group and the CHF group for bacterial and fungal communities (P > 0.05). Both groups showed similar trends at the phylum and genus levels. The control group had higher abundances of Proteobacteria, Gaiella, and Candida compared to the CHF group (P < 0.05), while they had lower abundances of Basidiomycota, Blastocystis, and Granulicatella (P < 0.05). Linear discriminant analysis (LEfSe) of relative abundance and effect size showed that 19 bacterial taxa (16 increased, 3 decreased) and 17 fungal taxa (12 increased, 5 decreased) changed in the CHF group compared to the control group. Among them, nine taxonomic groups (Saccharibacteria, Rhizobiaceae, Ruminococcus UCG-014, Eubacterium, CL500-29_marine, Megamonas, Prevotella, Acinetobacter, and Phyllobacterium) had an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) > 0.6 and P < 0.05, which could help distinguish CHF patients from healthy controls. Conclusion: This study preliminarily revealed dysbiosis of the tongue coating microbiota in CHF patients and identified potential microbial taxa for CHF diagnosis.
Keywords：chronic heart failureelderlytongue coatingmicroorganism
Publication Date：2025-11-10
Online Publishing Date：2025-11-24(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 3316-3321 )