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Abstract

Background: Several studies have suggested an association between certain infectious agents and coronary artery disease (CAD). A possible role for brucella in contributing to cardiovascular disease through its ability to produce a chronic inflammatory state was hypothesized. In this study, brucella was evaluated for its possible pathogenic role in significant occlusive coronary artery disease through testing for the presence of positive brucella antibody titers. Methods and Results: Patients referred for coronary angiography at the American University of Beirut Medical Center between January 2005 and February 2009 were tested for C-reactive protein (CRP) quantitative level and the presence of brucella antibody titers using ELISA. All participants were asked to fill a questioner relevant to demographics, risk factors for CAD, and presence of comorbidities. Results: 424 subjects were categorized into two groups; those with greater than 75% stenosis in at least one coronary artery and those with normal or less than 75% stenosis. Among patients with positive anti-brucella titers, 70.6% had CAD while among patients with negative anti-brucella titers 74.9% had CAD (P=0.514). In patients with elevated CRP level (≥ 3 mg/L), 14.9% had positive titer for brucella, whereas in those with low CRP level (< 3 mg/L), 5.8% had positive titers for brucella (P=0.016).Conclusions: The findings failed to show an association between anti-brucella titers and the development of significant CAD despite the presence of a significant correlation between brucella antibody positivity and elevated CRP. Further studies are needed to explore the role of this infectious agent with other known cardiac risk factors.

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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