Js. Lindholt et al., FAILURE TO DEMONSTRATE CHLAMYDIA-PNEUMONIAE IN SYMPTOMATIC ABDOMINAL AORTIC-ANEURYSMS BY A NESTED POLYMERASE-CHAIN-REACTION (PCR), European journal of vascular and endovascular surgery, 15(2), 1998, pp. 161-164
Objective: To investigate whether Chlamydia pneumoniae is present in s
ymptomatic abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). Method and materials: Aft
er optimisation of DNA extraction procedures an inhibitor-controlled n
ested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplifying fragments of the gene
encoding the C. pneumoniae specific major outer membrane protein was
performed on 124 wall-specimens from 20 patients with symptomatic AAA.
Results: None of the specimens contained C. pneumoniae-specific DNA.
Minor inhibition of the PCR was noticed especially in media specimens.
Conclusion: Using a sensitive and specific nested PCR, we were not ab
le to detect C. pneumoniae in symptomatic AAA. The failure to detect C
. pneumoniae in symptomatic AAA, combined with previously reported pos
itive findings in atherosclerotic lesions, supports the hypothesis tha
t AAA and atherosclerosis might be two different disease entities.