Positivity of Chlamydia Pneumoniae Antibody and It's Significance in Atherosclerosis

Background:The relationship between infection of microorganism and atherosclerosis has been studied because the pathophysiology after infection is similar to those of cell injury and/or lipid theory. Although there are many reports which described the relationships between the infection of chalamydia pneumoniae and the atherosclerosis. In Korea, even the prevalence of chlamydia infection has not been studied yet. This study was purposed on the prevalence of chlamydia infection and it's correlation to atherosclerosis. Methods:235 subjects were enrolled and age and sex adjusted subjects were divided into two groups, normal controls (n=43), atherosclerosis (AS, n=90) group;coronary artery disease (CAD, n=61) and cerebrovascular disease (CVD, n=29). Serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) were measured, LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) was calculated. Serum IgG chlamydia antibody were measured by ELISA method. Results:TG was significantly higher in AS (162.51±100.04 mg/dL vs 122.91±63.31 mg/dL, mean±SD, p=0.019), and HDL-C was significantly higher in controls (47.30± 9.88 mg/dL vs 39.38±8.29 mg/dL, p