title: Infectious atherosclerosis: is the hypothesis still alive? A clinically based approach to the dilemma.
abstract: Among the multiple factors involved in the pathophysiology of heart disease, infections have been proposed to play a role in atherosclerosis with most of the available evidence implicating Chlamydia pneumonia, influenza virus and Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Based on a model case presentation, we speculate that in the absence of traditional risk factors and in the context of an ongoing respiratory infection caused by a pro-inflammatory pathogen (M. pneumoniae) along with a past positive serologic history for potentially proven atherogenic microorganism (C. pneumoniae) and infection may elicit potentially pathogenic events on vascular wall cells and leukocytes of atheromatous lesions, supporting the hypothesis that such infections may potentiate atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD).
authors.affiliation: St Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, USA. ca2369@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Carlos L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Alviar
authors.forename: Juan G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Echeverri
authors.forename: Nicolas I
authors.initials: NI
authors.lastname: Jaramillo
authors.forename: Cesar J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Figueroa
authors.forename: Juan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Cordova
authors.forename: Aleksandr
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Korniyenko
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paniz-Mondolfi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D023521:Chlamydophila Infections / Q000150:complications*; D016993:Chlamydophila pneumoniae; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009177:Mycoplasma pneumoniae; D011019:Pneumonia, Mycoplasma / Q000150:complications*