Residual agglutinins against rickettsial agents in human sera from central and eastern Turkey and their relation to cardiovascular diseases.

Many workers have shown that the recrudescence of rickettsial infections may cause cardiovascular diseases of all kinds. As Turkey is a region where rickettsial infections in man are endemic, the relation between such infections and cardiovascular disease has been further studied there. Sera were collected from patients with cardiovascular diseases and also from healthy people and patients with diseases not affecting the heart, who served as a control group. A considerably higher percentage of positive sera was obtained from the patients with cardiovascular diseases, particularly for R. prowazekii, R. conorii and C. burnetii. It was also found that the highest percentage of positive sera was obtained from people in the 20-40 years age-group. Antistreptolysin-O (ASO) determinations were also made and it was found that, on average, agglutinin-negative sera had the higher ASO titres.