Is Poor Health Hardening Your Heart?

New evidence from Germany suggests that infections may contribute to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Researchers studied a group of 572 patients and measured their IgG or IgA antibodies to eight different pathogens, including herpes simplex virus 1 and 2, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, Hemophilus influenzae, Chlamydia pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Helicobacter pylori. Patients underwent coronary angiography, carotid duplex sonography and evaluation of the ankle-arm index, to determine the extent of atherosclerosis. What the researchers found was a correlation between infectious burden and the presence of advanced atherosclerosis. After a follow-up of three years, the mortality rate in patients with advanced atherosclerosis who were seropositive for up to three pathogens was only 7%, compared to a rate of 20% in those patients with between six and eight pathogens.

Further study will be required to determine whether the infections are actually causal for atherosclerosis, or whether they merely serve as a marker for poor health.

Source

1. Espinola-Klein C, Rupprecht HJ, Blankenberg S, et al. Impact of infectious burden on extent and long-term prognosis of atherosclerosis. Circulation. 2002;105:15-21.