Abstract

OBJECTIVE

One of the factors which triggers asthma exacerbation is viral infections. Rhinovirus and Respiratory Syncytial Virus are frequent isolates. In this study active bacterial agents in acute asthma exacerbations and detection of the dominant viruses in our region were investigated.

METHODS

This study was performed with 35 randomly selected pediatric patients. Twenty-one of them were admitted with acute exacerbation of asthma, and followed up in our allergy outpatient clinic between October 2011-February 2012 with diagnosis of asthma. As the control group 14 non-asthmatic patients who suffered from respiratory tract infec- tions were included. Patients’ nasopharyngeal swab specimens were studied for the viral serologic panels with the method of multiplex PCR.

RESULTS

General characteristic features of the groups were similar. In asthmatic group 12 patients (57%), in the control group 3 patients (21%) had virus positive results. The most commonly encountered virus in the asthmatic group were Respiratory Syncytial Virus (n: 5; 41.6%) and Human Rhinovirus (n: 4; 33.3%), in the control group Adenovirus (n: 1; 33,3%), Influenza A Virus (n: 1; 33.3%), Influenza B Virus (n: 1; 33.3%) were detected.

CONCLUSION

Viral infections are the leading factors of asthma exacerbations. To determine the agent may be important for the prophylaxis and new therapies for the attacks. Viruses were isolated from a small number of patients in our study but studies with the large num- ber of populations with different asthma phenotypes are needed to develop effective treat- ment strategies against asthma attacks which are triggered with specific viral pathogens seen regionally.