Identification of Chlamydia pneumoniae DNA in carotid plaques

Chlamydia pneumoniae (CP) is a bacterium that in recent years has been inve stigated as an etiologic agent for atherosclerosis. It is a ubiquitous micr oorganism that has been isolated in various regions of the vascular system and its prevalence is about 10% in the patient population, This study invol ved a group of 43 patients (27 men, 16 women, mean age 68 years) who underw ent carotid endarterectomy, About 9.3% of the patients yielded plaques that tested positive for the DNA genome of Chlamydia pneumoniae.