Chlamydial heat-shock protein-60 antibody and correlation with Chlamydia pneumoniae in atherosclerotic plaques

Abstract

A study was performed to determine whether serum antibody to Chlamydial heat-shock protein-60 (CHSP-60) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were associated with the presence of Chlamydia pneumoniae in atheromatous plaques in 75 patients. The mean (±SD) ELISA optical density (OD) of anti-CHSP-60 was 0.19 ± 0.15 in 54 patients with detectable C. pneumoniae antigen, versus an OD of 0.11 ± 0.08 in 21 patients without detectable C. pneumoniae I antigen (P = .008). Higher anti-CHSP-60 at an OD ≥0.12 was present in 38 (70.4%) of patients with detectable C. pneumoniae in atheromas, compared with 5 (23.8%) of patients without C. pneumoniae antigen (P