Does a short course of clarithromycin affect mortality in patients with stable coronary artery disease?
Claire Kendall CMAJ Jespersen CM, Als-Nielsen B, Damgaard M, et al. Randomised placebo controlled multicentre trial to assess short term clarithromycin for patients with stable coronary artery disease: CLARICOR trial. BMJ 2006;332:22-7. Background: Chlamydia pneumoniae DNA is found in human atherosclerotic plaques, and mouse models have shown that C. pneumoniae infection leads to arterial inflammation. However, antibiotics have not been shown to reduce cardiovascular events among patients at risk. Recent clinical trials and meta-analyses have failed to show a decrease in cardiovascular events after patients receive courses of antibiotic therapy of variable duration. Design: These authors examined well patients in Copenhagen with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) (defined as occurrence of myocardial infarction [MI] or angina earlier than 3 months before enrolment or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or coronary bypass surgery earlier than 6 months before enrolment) for a
