Chronic infections and coronary heart disease

The rapidly changing patterns of coronary heart disease (CHD) prevalence an d presentation fail to be explained by conventional cardiovascular risk fac tors alone, An infectious basis to atherosclerosis may, at least in part, b e contributing to the variable rates of prevalence of CHD in different part s of the world. The evidence for such an association appears to be stronges t for Chlamydia pneumoniae. Results of recent anti-chlamydia antibiotic int ervention pilot studies have renewed interest in the role of C. pneumoniae, and corroborated the evidence from sero-epidemiological, pathological and animal-model studies. The results of larger, on-going, purpose-designed int ervention studies should help to increase our understanding of the role of infection in atherogenesis and potentially lead to a novel and effective tr eatment strategy for patients with CHD - broad spectrum antibiotics.