ABSTRACT
Objective To study the correlation of human cytomegalovirus infection with carotid atherosclerosis.Methods A total of 120 patients with carotid atherosclerosis and 140 healthy control patients were recruited for HCMV-PP65 antigen detection and Ultrasound examination.Results In carotid atherosclerosis and healthy patients,58.20％(71 cases)and 6.43％(9 cases)of the subjects were positive for HCMV-PP65 antigen(x2 =32.98,P ＜ 0.05).In carotid atherosclerosis group,69.01％(49 cases)of the patients with positive HCMV-PP65 antigen had instable plaques,while it was 47.06％(24 cases)in the patients with negative HCMV-PP65 antigen.The difference in the positivity of HCMV-PP65 between the two groups were significant(x2 =8.22,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Active infection of HCMV may be associated with Carotid Atherosclerosis and the plaques will be more instable.