| Antibiotics for Heart Disease?
By Sean Henahan, Access Excellence
 STOCKHOLM,
Sweden (August 28, 1997) Take an antibiotic for heart disease? This
seemingly absurd suggestion is gaining support following a remarkable finding
linking infection with the Chlamydia pneumoniae bacteria and coronary heart
disease.
Researchers from Argentina, noting reports of an association between
high serum levels of C. pneumoniae and heart disease, conducted the first
double-blind, randomized clinical study to test whether administering an
antibiotic to patients considered at high risk for heart attack would proffer
any benefit.
Two hundred patients with a condition known as unstable angina, a disease
with a very high risk for heart attack, were given either a placebo or
an antibiotic in the macrolide class twice a day for 30 days. They were
then observed for six months.
Surprisingly, the patients who had received the antibiotic had a significantly
lower incidence of sever angina and/or heart attack, than did patients
receiving placebo. While slightly more than five percent of patients on
placebo developed problems, only one percent of those taking the antibiotic
did.
What is the mechanism for this effect? Chlamydia organisms have been
found in the hard atherosclerotic plaque tissue in the heart muscle.
When this plaque ruptures, heart attack can result. The researchers believe
that the Chlamydia is involved in an inflammation process in these plaques
that both promotes the hardening of the arteries and predisposes them to
rupture. It appears that treatment with the antibiotic stabilizes the situation
in the vessel walls. Other antinflammatory drugs such as aspirin, steroids
and ibuprofen have been tested and found ineffective
"These findings suggest that antichlamydial antibiotics may be useful
in therapeutic intervention in addition to standard medication in patients
with coronary artery disease," reported Enrique Gurfinkel, M.D., Favaloro
Foundation, Buenos Aires, Argentina, at this year's meeting of the European
Society of Cardiology . "Additional, larger scale clinical trials will
be needed to confirm these preliminary observations."
Unstable angina is among the most common forms of heart disease and
is the primary cause of cardiac death and hospitalization. The new finding
is particularly welcome because the treatment options for unstable angina
are limited to risky blood thinning drugs like heparin and/or more aggressive
surgical interventions.
"It may be that we are seeing the beginning of a new era in the treatment
of symptomatic atherosclerosis. Looking ahead, this approach might lead
to new ways of intervening earlier in the process of artery hardening,
possibly even a preventive vaccine," Gurfinkel told AE.
The new finding has an interesting parallel in the field of gastroenterology.
When a researchers proposed about ten years ago that stomach ulcers might
be caused by a bacteria, the medical establishment was not impressed. Since
that time the researchers has been vindicated, and antibiotic treatment
is now used to treat ulcers.
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