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Bacteria Can Double Risk of Another Heart Attack

Posted on: Sunday, 5 June 2005, 03:00 CDT

Clinicians and researchers have found that more than three quarters of heart attack patients have been infected with chlamydia pneumoniae, a bacteria found in arteries of heart attack patients, and multiple studies have found this can double the risk of developing subsequent heart attacks.

Initial studies suggested that an antibiotic regimen to treat the chlamydia pneumoniae could reduce the risk of coronary events.

However, researchers from the TIMI Study Group at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in an international clinical trial, found that despite long-term treatment with gatifloxacin, an antibiotic often prescribed to successfully treat chlamydia pneumoniae, patients did not experience a reduction in recurrent cardiac events. These findings were published in the April 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

According to study principal investigator Dr. Christopher P. Cannon, although chlamydia pneumoniae may have played a role in starting the process of arterosclerosis, once patients have documented heart disease, it appears to be too late to treat the infection.

"Instead, we need to focus on reducing the cholesterol build-up and inflammation in the arteries, using high-dose statins and other treatments," he said.

Cannon noted that while there are many identifiable risk factors for arteriosclerosis, many patients do not exhibit these risk factors. This has prompted ongoing research to find additional markers that will help clinicians identify and then stop progression of cardiovascular disease. Chlamydia pneumoniae, one of these new, non-traditional risk factors, has been associated with the development of arteriosclerosis and heart attacks.

- Carolyn Susman

Source: Palm Beach Post

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