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Seroprevalence of Antibodies to Chlamydia pneumoniae in Women With Preeclampsia

From the Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina; and University of Pittsburgh, and Magee-Womens Research Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Address reprint requests to: Roberta B. Ness, MD, MPH, University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, Room 517, Parran Hall, 130 DeSoto Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261; E-mail: repro{at}pitt.edu.

OBJECTIVE: Preeclampsia shares many risk factors and pathophysiologic features with coronary heart disease. We studied whether, like atherosclerosis, preeclampsia is related to seroprevalence of immunoglobulin (Ig) G antibodies to Chlamydia pneumoniae.

METHODS: Cross-sectional comparisons were made for 37 women with preeclampsia and 37 women with normal pregnancies at term. In these two groups, antibody titers for IgG, IgM, and IgA seroprevalence to C pneumoniae and IgG to Chlamydia trachomatis and Chlamydia psittaci were compared.

RESULTS: Immunoglobulin G antibodies to C pneumoniae at a titer of at least 1:16 were more common in women with preeclampsia (25 of 37) than in women without (15 of 37) (odds ratio 3.1; 95% confidence interval 1.2, 7.9). There were no significant differences in the seroprevalence of IgA or IgM antibodies to C pneumoniae. Women with preeclampsia were also no more likely to have IgG antibodies to C trachomatis or C psittaci.

CONCLUSION: Women with preeclampsia had an increased IgG seroprevalence to C pneumoniae but not to C trachomatis or C psittaci. These preliminary data suggest a specific association between infection with C pneumoniae and preeclampsia.

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