Maternal SerumChlamydia PneumoniaeAntibodies and CRP Levels in Women with Preeclampsia and Gestational Hypertension

Abstract

Our results suggest that chronic C. pneumoniae infection and systemic low-grade inflammation may be associated with preeclampsia requiring elective delivery before 37 weeks gestation.

C-reactive protein and later preeclampsia

“…Seven of these studies were conducted in the United States [8,19,[21][22][23][24][25]; eleven, in Europe [9,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]; and one, in Australia [36]. Only four studies were conducted in low and middle-income countries [12,17,37,38] (Table 1).…”

“…In eight studies, CRP evaluation was conducted during the first trimester [21,23,27,[29][30][31][32]34]. In eight studies, the assessment occurred during the second or third trimester [8,12,26,32,[35][36][37][38], and in seven studies, the analysis was performed combining information on women's CRP levels relative to the first and second trimester [9,17,19,22,24,25,28].…”

“…Most participants were young adult women, with a mean age between 20.2 and 35.2 years, which, in general, was similar between case and control groups. Fourteen of the 23 studies used a prospective nested case-control design [12,19,[21][22][23][27][28][29][30][32][33][34][35]37] (Table 1).…”

Chlamydia pneumoniae Infection was Associated with Risk of Mortality from Coronary Heart Disease in Japanese Women but not Men: the JACC Study

“…C. pneumoniae infection has been suggested to contribute to the development of gestational hypertension and preeclampsia [25][26][27] . Repeated C. pneumoniae infection in the reproductive years of women might enhance the development of coronary heart disease.…”

The association of body mass index, waist and hip circumference, and waist–hip ratio with Chlamydia pneumoniae IgG antibodies and high-sensitive C-reactive protein at 31 years of age in Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966

“…In our large (n ¼ 5044), well-defined population, our aim was to study whether C. pneumoniae-specific IgG antibodies are associated with elevated BMI, and whether the risk is more pronounced in those individuals with an ongoing inflammation, measured by elevated high-sensitive CRP (hsCRP) levels. We have previously reported that simultaneous presence of markers of C. pneumoniae infection and inflammation associate with pre-eclampsia requiring elective preterm delivery, 33 and with increased risk of coronary heart disease. 34 Such a combination of markers may also implicate that C. pneumoniae infection is present as a persistent form and promotes low-grade inflammation.…”