RESUMEN
Chlamydia pneumoniae is an obligatory intracellular bacteria which can cause both acute and chronic respiratory tract infection. The significance of chronic and recurrent respiratory infection may be of prime importance in chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD). The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and incidence of C. pneumoniae antibodies in elderly COPD patients compared to a healthy elderly control group. C. pneumoniae antibodies were detected by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in serum samples obtained from 127 elderly COPD patients and a 131 healthy elderly control group. The results showed that the seroprevalence of C. pneumoniae infection as determined by the existence of specific IgG or IgA or IgM antibodies was 96.1% in the COPD patients and 75.6% in the control group (p < 0.01). The prevalence of individual C. pneumoniae IgG, IgA and IgM in elderly COPD vs healthy control was 85.8% vs 66.4%, 85.0% vs 51.1% and 3.9% vs 0%, respectively. The incidence or seroconversion rate of C. pneumoniae antibodies after one year follow-up was found to be 33% in the COPD patients and 67.9% in the control group. High prevalence and incidence of C. pneumoniae antibodies indicates that both acute and chronic C. pneumoniae infection play a role in elderly COPD patients. Therefore, antibiotics of choice for C. pneumoniae infection should probably be considered.