Acute myocardial infarction and Helicobacter pylori seropositivity

Infectious agents including Helicobacter pylori, have been linked to corona ry heart diseases on epidemiological and pathogenetic grounds. Classical ri sk factors fail to explain all the epidemiological variations of the diseas e. Our aim was to investigate the association of acute myocardial infarctio n with Helicobacter pylori infection in a case-control study by comparing a group of male patients with a control group of blood donors matched for se x and age. We investigated the classical cardiovascular risk factors in all patients. We studied 44 consecutive male patients, aged 40-65 years, admit ted for acute myocardial infarction to the Coronary Care Unit at Novi Ligur e Hospital in northern Italy. Helicobacter pylori infection was assessed by measurement of antibodies (IgG) against Helicobacter pylori in blood. Volu nteer blood donors attending Molinette Hospital Blood Bank in Turin, northe rn Italy served as controls Among the patients we investigated the presence of hypertension, cholesterol and glucose levels in serum, fibrinogen in pl asma, smoking habits, and social class. Helicobacter plori infection was pr esent in 34 of 33 (77%) patients and in 183 of 310 (59%) controls (P<0.05); the odds ratio was 2.36 (95% confidence inter val 1.08-5.31). Classical ca rdiovascular risk factors did not differ among patients with and without He licobacter pylori infection. In conclusion, patients with acute myocardial infarction had a significantly higher prevalence of Helicobacter pylori inf ection than the control population. The classical risk factors for cardiova scular diseases were equally distributed among patients irrespective of the ir Helicobacter pylori status.