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Abstract Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a serious public health problem in the industrialized nations, where it ranks the third major cause of death. Chlamydia pneumoniae is the third species of genus Chlamydia, and is known as a cause of human acute respiratory tract infection, and pneumonia worldwide and recently it has been strongly implicated as a possible cause of atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease. Atherosclerosis is considered as a chronic inflammatory fibroproliferative disease of the blood vessel wall, and it can induce the elevation of some inflammatory markers in the blood such as C-reactive protein and fibrinogen. Coronary atherosclerosis is a disease caused by well established risk factors include: smoking, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study is to detect the prevalence of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection among patients with coronary heart disease, and to study the relation between Chlamydia pneumoniae and some other risk factors for CHD. This study was carried out on sixty subjects, they were divided into ٢ groups. The first group composed of fifty CAD patients, and selected from coronary care unit of Medical Research Institute, the second group was ten healthy control subjects without any history of CHD, and they were of matched age and sex as CAD patients. The following investigations were done for all subjects of the studied group: ١- Detailed history taking and full clinical examination with stress on gender, age, smoking habit, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus. ٢- Electrocardiogram (ECG) (standard ١٢ leads ECG). ٣- Biochemical studies including estimation of serum TC, TG, HDL-C, LDL-C, hs-CRP levels, plasma fibrinogen level, and complete blood count with stress on WBCs and platelets count. ٤- Bacteriological studies include detection of C. pneumoniae IgG antibodies in serum, and C. pneumoniae DNA in PBMNCs. |