38th INTERSCIENCE CONFERENCE ON ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS AND CHEMOTHERAPY
SEPTEMBER 24-27, 1998, SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA
CONTACT: JIM SLIWA, [email protected]
Antibiotics a Possible Protection against Heart Attack and Stroke
Dr. I.W. (Bill) Fong
Professor of Medicine
University of Toronto
Director, Infectious Diseases
St. Michael's Hospital
30 Bond Street, Room 4179 Victoria Wing
Toronto, Ontario M5B 1W8
Canada
Phone: 416-864-5746
Paper B-21, Session 43-B
Friday, September 25, 1998 -- 1:30 p.m.
Researchers have found that early antibiotic treatment of a common bacterial infection may prevent atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), which in turn can lead to heart attacks and strokes. The antibiotic animal trials were undertaken based on previous studies which had suggested that Chlamydia pneumoniae a bacterium that causes pneumonia and bronchitis may be associated with atherosclerosis.
Investigations were led by Dr. I.W. Fong, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and director of Infectious Diseases at St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario. The coinvestigators were Dr. B. Chiu, assistant professor of pathology at the University of Toronto and pathologist at St. Michael's Hospital; and Dr. J. Mahony, professor of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University and St. Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. The study was conducted at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and will be presented at the 38th Interscience Conference of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) on September 25, 1998 in San Diego, California.
The investigators infected three groups of rabbits with C. pneumoniae (to produce respiratory infection) then treated one of the groups with the antibiotic azithromycin five days later. Another group was treated with the antibiotic after six weeks and the third group was left untreated as a control. The rabbits were fed non-cholesterol chow to eliminate diet as an interfering factor in the results. The investigators found that 35 per cent of the control group rabbits developed early-stage atherosclerosis in the aorta (the main artery to the heart). The results were similar for the rabbits treated after six weeks, with 33 per cent demonstrating the same kind of aortic damage. However, only 4.2 per cent of the rabbits treated within five days of infection developed then signs of atherosclerosis. The study suggests that early antibiotic treatment of the common C. pneumoniae infection may prevent hardening of the arteries but later treatment cannot necessarily reverse damage that has already been done.
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