Association Between Mycoplasma Pneumonia and Increased Risk of Ischemic Stroke

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Infections have been hypothesized to play a role in vascular disease. The association between Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) infection and ischemic stroke remained undetermined. METHODS: A total of 1094 patients with MP infection were enrolled as the study group and compared with 5168 sex-, age-, and comorbidity-matched subjects without MP, to be followed up prospectively from January 2003 to December 2007 for development of ischemic stroke. RESULTS: During a maximum 5-year follow-up period, 49 patients with ischemic stroke were identified. Subjects with MP infection were significantly associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke compared with controls (1.10% versus 0.72%, respectively; P=0.01). The logrank test showed that patients with MP had significantly higher incidence of stroke development than did those without MP (P=0.046). After Cox model adjustment for risk factors and comorbidities, MP infection was still independently associated with increased risk of stroke (hazard ratio [HR], 2.07; 95% CI, 1.05-4.03). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that MP infection is independently associated with risk of subsequent ischemic stroke development.