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Does tetracycline limit heart attacks?
Heart attack patients are less likely than other patients to have taken the common antibiotic tetracycline within the past 3 years, implicating infection as a potential cause of cardiovascular disease.
References:
Meier, C.R., et al. 1999. Antibiotics and risk of subsequent first-time acute myocardial infarction. Journal of the American Medical Association 281(Feb. 3):427.
Further Readings:
Carlsson, J., et al. 1997. Previous cytomegalovirus or Chlamydia pneumoniae infection and risk of restenosis after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. Lancet 350(Oct. 25):1225.
Danesh, J., R. Collins, and R. Peto. 1997. Chronic infections and coronary heart disease: Is there a link? Lancet 350(Aug. 9):430.
Fackelmann, K.A. 1997. Harbinger of a heart attack. Science News 151(June 14):374.
Folsom, A.R. 1999. Antibiotics for prevention of myocardial infarction? Not yet! Journal of the American Medical Association 281(Feb. 3):461.
Glynn, J.R. 1994. Helicobacter pylori and the heart. Lancet 344(July 16):146.
Hooper, J. 1999. A new germ theory. Atlantic Monthly 283(February):41.
Johnston, N. 1997. Heart-stopping bug. Maclean's 110(Dec. 15):54.
Nieto, F.J. 1998. Infections and atherosclerosis: New clues from an old hypothesis? American Journal of Epidemiology 148:937.
Sources:
Paul W. Ewald
Amherst College
Biology Department
Amherst, MA 01002-5000
Bill Fong
St. Michael's Hospital
30 Bond Street
Toronto, Ontario M5B 1W8
Canada
Christoph R. Meier
Boston University Medical Center
Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program
11 Muzzey Street
Lexington, MA 02421
F. Javier Nieto
Johns Hopkins University
School of Public Health
615 North Wolfe Street
Room W6009
Baltimore, MD 21205
From Science News, Vol. 155, No. 6, February 6, 1999, p. 86. Copyright © 1999, Science Service.
