Association between Helicobacter pylori Infection and Atherosclerotic Coronary Artery Disease

Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death indeveloped countries. In addition to traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease, nowadays,accumulating evidence indicates that a variety of infections contribute to pathogenesis ofatherosclerosis, (We investigated whether Helicobacter pylori infection is related to Prpevalenceof coronary heart disease) there is controversy concerning the impact of H.pylori infections inatherosclerosis. This case-control study was carried out on 130 subjects who underwentcoronary angiography in the School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, fromOct 2006 to Oct 2007. According to angiography findings, the patients were grouped into cases(n=70) with Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), and normal control group (n=60). Then, using ELISAmethod, specific anti H.pylori IgGs were measured in all subjects. The connection between CAD andH.pylori infection was studied. Among the 130 patients, anti-H.pylori IgGs were detected in 80% of cases and 65%of control subjects (P=0.05). The investigation shows that CAD correlated significantly withhypertension, diabetes, and smoking (P<0.05) although there was no associations between thesetraditional risk factors, and H.pylori infection. These findings raise the possibility that exposure to H.pylori may lead to an increasedrisk of coronary artery disease independent of other risk factors.