Failure to detect Chlamydia pneumoniae by polymerase chain reaction in patients with acute coronary syndromes

Controversy surrounds the association of Chlamydia pneumoniae and atherosclerosis. We aimed to investigate the presence of C. pneumoniae DNA by PCR in acute and chronic atherosclerotic heart disease. The study enrolled 325 subjects: patients and healthy volunteers from Serbia and California. The groups were age and sex matched. Sampled sera were sent on dry ice to Immunosciences Lab, Beverly Hills, US where we performed 650 analyses by using different PCR assays: 325 by using phenol-chloroform for DNA extraction and 325 by using QIAamp test kits. C. pneumoniae DNA was found in only one patient's sample. Despite the data from literature, we did not succeed to isolate or detect C. pneumoniae by PCR. The failure might be due to specimens we used. Further analyses are needed with other assays and/or specimens.