title: Impact of chronic infection with chlamydia pneumoniae on incidence of cardiac allograft vasculopathy.
abstract: Chronic infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae (CP) is associated with development of coronary disease. However, little information exists concerning CP infection and impact on posttransplant cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV). A total of 202 patients were investigated 5.5+/-3.1 years after cardiac transplantation (46.5+/-11.0 years; 169 male, 33 female). Assessment of CAV was performed by annual coronary angiograms. Chlamydia serology (IgG/IgA) was performed using micro-immunofluorescence. Statistics comprised analysis of variance and Kaplan-Meier analysis. A total of 152 patients were CAV positive. Elevated titers were present in 45% (IgG) and 72.8% (IgA) of patients. Generally, serostatus was not associated with development of CAV when evaluated over the total postoperative interval. However, after month 14 there was a significant trend toward lower actuarial freedom from CAV in patients with elevated IgA titers. CP seems not to play a significant role in the development of CAV early after heart transplantation but might be a predicting risk factor after the first postoperative year.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wittwer
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pethig
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Heublein
authors.forename: O E
authors.initials: OE
authors.lastname: Teebken
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Harringer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haverich
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wahlers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000150:complications*; D016993:Chlamydophila pneumoniae; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000097:blood; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D007074:Immunoglobulin G