Chlamydophila pneumoniae infection in Egyptian Asthamatic children

Abstract EN

Background: Chlamydophila pneumoniae (C.

pneumoniae) is a frequent causative agent of acute respiratory disease and has been recently reported as a possible cause of asthma.

We investigated the prevalence of C.

pneumoniae infections in pediatric patients with acute exacerbations of asthma and in chronic stable asthmatics.

Aims: To study the prevalence of C.

pneumonia infection in known asthmatic children in Egypt.

Methods: A total of forty asthmatic children aged four to fifteen years, eleven with acute exacerbations and twenty nine with chronic stable asthma, in addition to ten healthy controls were included in the study.

Nasopharyngeal aspirates were obtained and tested for C.

pneumoniae infection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in all subjects.

Results: Positive PCR results to C.

pneumoniae was demonstrated in 2 (6.9%) of the stable asthmatics, 4 (36.4%) of the exacerbation group and none of the control subjects.

The incidence of C.

pneumoniae infection in asthmatic children with acute exacerbation was significantly higher than that in the stable asthmatics (p=0.02) and the controls (p=0.03) with no significant difference between the later groups.

We also found a significantly higher percentage of PCR positivity to C.

pneumoniae in patients with longer duration of illness (p=0.019).

Conclusion: The present results show a possible association of infection with C.

pneumoniae with acute asthma exacerbations and asthma duration in children.