Correlations between chlamydophila pneumoniae, cytomegalovirus infection and carotid atherosclerotic plaque and its stability / 国际脑血管病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the correlations between the occurrence of carotid artery atherosclerosis and chlamydia pneumoniae (Cpn) and cytomegalovirus (CMV).Methods Carotid color ultrasonography showed that the patients with intima-media thickness (IMT) ＞ 1.5 mm were enrolled and were used as a carotid atherosclerosis group,and the healthy subjects (IMT ＜ 1.0 mm) were used as a control group.Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the antibody levels and positive rates of the serum anti-Cpn and anti-CMV IgG.The demography,vascular risk factors,anti-Cpn and anti-CMV IgG antibody positive rates of the carotid atherosclerosis group and the control group were compared.Results A total of 92 patients of the carotid atherosclerosis group were enrolled,including 30 patients with stable plaque and 62 with unstable plaque; a total of 49 healthy subjects of the control group were enrolled.There were no significant differences in the proportions of age,male,hypertension,diabetes,hyperlipidemia,and smoking patients between the carotid atherosclerosis group and the control group (all P ＞0.05).The anti-Cpn IgG (69.5％ vs.26.5％ ; x2 =23.887,P ＜ 0.001),anti-CMV IgG positive rate (75.0％ vs.30.6％ ; x2 =26.156,P ＜ 0.001),and anti-Cpn IgG + anti-CMV positive rate (51.2％ vs.10.2％ ;x2 =24.006,P ＜0.001) of the carotid atherosclerosis group were significantly higher than those of the control group.In the atherosclerosis group,there were no significant difference in the proportions of age,male,hypertension,diabetes,hyperlipidemia,and smoking patients between the unstable plaque subgroup and the stable plaque subgroup (all P＞ 0.05).The anti-Cpn IgG (80.6％ vs.46.7％; x2=11.025,P=0.001),anti-CMV IgG positive rate (83.9％ vs.56.7％;x2 =7.980,P=0.005) and anti-Cpn IgG + anti-CMV positive IgG rate (44.6％ vs.7.6％ ; x2 =10.210,P =0.006) of the unstable plaque subgroup were significantly higher than those of stable plaque subgroup.Conelusions The occurrence of carotid atherosclerosis and the stability of plaque are associated with the Cpn and CMV infection.The Cpn and CMV infection may be the important factors for the occurrence of carotid atherosclerosis plaques and unstable plaques.