Teoman Zafer Apan and Alp Dolgun
Aim: The increasing body of evidence influences the possible association of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection with pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The influence of coronary artery surgery on the disease activity is unclear. We aimed to determine the seroprevalence of C. pneumoniae before and after the coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. Methodology: One hundred and seventy eight patients diagnosed with coronary artery disease undergoing surgery were involved in the study. C. pneumoniae IgG and IgM seroprevalence were examined using ELISA method both the day before and 30 days after the surgery. Results: IgG and IgM seroprevalence for C. pneumoniae were found to be 63.45% and 2.8% before the surgery. While there was significant increase on IgG (69.66%, p=0.001), increase was not significant on IgM values (4.49%, p= 0.250). Conclusion: Our study showed that CABG surgery induced activation of chronic C. pneumoniae infection with surgical stress-induced immunological changes. Other possible factors, such as blood transfusion, are likely to be involved in this activation. Antimicrobial therapy during the operative period should be considered in patients who are serologically positive for C. pneumoniae after an operation.