Chronic peripheral arteriopathy is associated with seropositivity to Chlamydia pneumoniae.
The study was carried out to clarify the correlation between Chlamydia pneumoniae infection and peripheral arterial disease (PAD). The level of specific antibodies of the 133 consecutive patients suffering from PAD at 2nd stage of Leriche's classification were compared with 60 healthy controls by using a commercial Micro-IF Test. A higher incidence of serological evidence of C. pneumoniae infection was found in the patients (106/133) than in controls (6/60). These results are in agreement with other findings that measured the infection in atheromasic plaques. A strong cause-effect relationship between bacterial infection and peripheral arterial disease was not found, but the raised seropositivity level could be considered as a target for medical therapy of PAD.
Department of Internal Medicine and Systemic Disease, Medical Angiology Care Unit, University of Catania, Italy.
S S
SS
Signorelli
A
A
Stivala
L
L
Di Pino
M
M
Salmeri
G
G
Tempera
M A
MA
Toscano
G
G
Nicoletti
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D016993:Chlamydophila pneumoniae / Q000276:immunology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016491:Peripheral Vascular Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012698:Serologic Tests
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial