Comments on the Failure to Detect Chlamydia pneumoniae in Atherosclerosis

Excerpt

The article by Bishara et al. [1] deserves some comment. The authors reported they had not been able to isolate Chlamydia pneumoniae in culture from aorta or carotid artery specimens taken from 96 patients with atherosclerosis in Israel and, more surprisingly, had failed to detect Chlamydia pneumoniae DNA in such specimens using PCR assays. Although other investigators elsewhere have failed in the same way [2, 3, 4, 5], the large majority have detected Chlamydia pneumoniae organisms using various techniques [6], sufficient to provide confidence that the organisms really do exist in chronic inflammatory lesions. In addition, Chlamydia pneumoniae has been detected not only in coronary arteries, but in all of the major vessels that have been examined [6], and in patients from the age of about 15 years onwards [6, 7, 8], which is about the time when atherosclerosis first begins to appear. Furthermore, the organisms have been detected in diverse parts of the world where examinations have been undertaken and in various ethnic groups [6]. Therefore, it would be extraordinary if such organisms were not present in the vessels of subjects in Israel, particularly since the individuals studied had a mean age of 66 years and chlamydial IgG antibody was detected in the majority of them, denoting previous infection by Chlamydia pneumoniae. …