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Background —Whether serological evidence of prior infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae , herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), and cytomegalovirus (CMV) is associated with myocardial infarction (MI) and coronary heart disease (CHD) death remains a source of controversy. Methods and Results —We conducted a nested case-control study among participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a cohort study of persons aged ≥65 years. Cases experienced an incident MI and CHD death (n=213). Control subjects were matched to cases by age, sex, clinic, year of enrollment, and month of blood draw (n=405). Serum was analyzed for IgG antibodies to C pneumoniae , HSV-1, and CMV. After adjustment for other risk factors, the risk of MI and CHD death was associated with the presence of IgG antibodies to HSV-1 (odds ratio OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.1 to 3.6) but was not associated with the presence of IgG antibodies to either C pneumoniae (OR 1.1, 95% CI 0.7 to 1.8) or CMV (OR 1.2, 95% CI 0.7 to 1.9). Although there was little association with low to moderate C pneumoniae antibody titers (≤1:512), high-titer (1:1024) C pneumoniae antibody was associated with an increased risk (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.1 to 4.4). Conclusions —Among older adults, the presence of IgG antibodies to HSV-1 was associated with a 2-fold increase in the risk of incident MI and CHD death. For C pneumoniae , only high-titer IgG antibodies were associated with an increased risk of MI and CHD death. The presence of IgG antibodies to CMV was not associated with risk among the elderly.
Siscovick et al. (Tue,) studied this question.