Antibiotics May Offer New Therapeutic Option In MI

A team of UK researchers has demonstrated for the first time thatinfection with Chlamydia pneumoniae provides a useful yardstick for predicting whether survivors of a myocardial infarction will suffer another attack or require treatment to restore cardiac blood flow. Furthermore, it has shown that antibiotic treatment appears to reduce the risk of these complications in patients with antibodies to the bacterium.

The scientists report in the journal Circulation (July 15) that patients with the highest blood levels of antibodies to C pneumoniae had a four-times-higher risk of heart disease problems than patients with no detectable antibodies.

C pneumoniae has been detected in blood vessel wall tissues in several recent studies, leading to speculation that it may be implicated in the pathogenesis of MI. Valentin Fuster, director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York and president of the American Heart Association, says that the UK study, if validated by further research, may place C pneumoniae on a par with cigarette smoking as a risk factor for heart attack.