Effect of 3 Months of Antimicrobial Treatment With Clarithromycin in Acute Non–Q-Wave Coronary Syndrome

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Abstract
Background — Coronary artery disease, an inflammatory disease, may be caused by infection. We investigated whether the antibiotic clarithromycin would reduce morbidity and mortality in patients with acute non–Q-wave coronary syndrome. Methods and Results — Altogether, 148 patients with acute non–Q-wave infarction or unstable angina were randomly assigned to receive double-blind treatment with either clarithromycin or placebo for 3 months. The primary end point was a composite of death, myocardial infarction, or unstable angina during treatment; the secondary end point was occurrence of any cardiovascular event during the entire follow-up period (average 555 days, range 138 to 924 days). There was a trend toward fewer patients meeting primary end-point criteria in the clarithromycin group than in the placebo group (11 versus 19 patients, respectively; risk ratio 0.54, 95% CI 0.25 to 1.14; P =0.10). By the end of the entire follow-up, 16 patients in the clarithromycin group and 27 in the placebo group had experienced a cardiovascular event (risk ratio 0.49, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.92; P =0.03). Conclusions — Clarithromycin appears to reduce the risk of ischemic cardiovascular events in patients presenting with acute non–Q-wave infarction or unstable angina. No signs of this effect diminishing were observed during follow-up.