Association of chronic infection of Chlamydia pneumoniae and coronary heart disease in the Japanese

The association of Chlamydia pneumoniae with atherosclerosis of coronary an d carotid arteries and the aorta has been demonstrated by seroepidemiology and by detection of the organism in atheromata, We investigated the frequen cy of C, pneumoniae seropositivity in patients with acute myocardial infarc tion (AMI), C, pneumoniae-specific antibodies were measured by the microimm unofluorescence test in 160 AMT patients and 160 control subjects matched f or age and gender, The odds ratios (ORs) were 2.2 (95 % confidence interval (CI), 1.2 to 3.9) for immunoglobulin (Ig)G and 2.7 (95 % CI, 1.7 to 4.3) f or IgA, After adjustment for other cardiovascular risk factors of age, gend er, hypertension, diabetes, cigarette smoking and serum cholesterol, the OR s were essentially unchanged. This study confirmed that the observations of an association between antibody against C, pneumoniae and coronary heart d isease in Western nations is also present in Japan. Our results are compara ble to the previous seroepidemiological studies reporting ORs of 2.0 or gre ater.