Source: Infection  |  Posted 10 years ago

[]Chlamydia pneumoniae[] may play a role in the pathogenesis of peripheral vascular disease, according to Spanish researchers. Researchers have found a high incidence of []C pneumoniae[] DNA in patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease.

This human respiratory pathogen has undergone wider studies relative to coronary atherosclerosis than peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD). Consequently, researchers from the Universities of Granada and Cadiz retrospectively analyzed the presence of []C pneumoniae[] DNA in patients with PAOD.

Participants included 71 patients who had peripheral arterial occlusal disease secondary to surgical treatment. They provided samples on which a seminested PCR method was applied. Fifty patients with chronic superficial venous insufficiency who needed surgery for varicose resection comprised the controls.

Seventeen patients (50 percent) and 18 samples proved positive in the PCR study for arteries of the lower extremities. Fifteen patients (60 percent) and 16 samples were positive for aneurysm of the abdominal aorta and 22 (70 percent) and 23 samples for carotid stenosis. Seventeen patients (65 percent) and 18 samples were positive for aortic stenosis.

Researchers found []C pneumoniae[] DNA in six external pudenal arteries (12 percent) of the control group, which was significantly below the incidence in the patients group.