Department of Respiratory Medicine, Kyorin University School of Medicine, Mitaka City, Tokyo, JapanJapan
Infectious Disease Surveillance Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection has been considered as a cause of initial onset of bronchial asthma
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Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection has been considered as a cause of initial onset of bronchial asthma1 or exacerbation of asthma.2 For example, Kraft, et al. showed that M. pneumoniae was detected by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in 10 of 18 asthmatics and one of 11 control subjects (p<0.02).
PULMONARY RESEARCH AND RESPIRATORY MEDICINE ISSN 2377-1658 http://dx.doi.org/10.17140/PRRMOJ-2-121 Open Journal Short Is Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Infection Communication Associated with Adult Asthma * *Corresponding author Exacerbation?
Takeshi Saraya, MD, PhD Department of Respiratory Medicine Kyorin University School of Medicine 1* 2 1 Takeshi Saraya , Hirokazu Kimura and Hajime Takizawa 6-20-2 Shinkawa, Mitaka City Tokyo 181-8611, Japan Tel. +81 (0)422 44 0671 1 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Kyorin University School of Medicine, Mitaka City, Fax: +81 (0)422 44 0671 E-mail: sara@yd5.so-net.ne.jp Tokyo, Japan 2Infectious Disease Surveillance Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan Volume 2 : Issue 4 Article Ref. #: 1000PRRMOJ2121 Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection has been considered as a cause of initial onset 1 2 Article History of bronchial asthma1 or exacerbation of asthma.2 For example, Kraft, et al. showed that M. th Received: October 29th, 2015 pneumoniae was detected by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in 10 of 18 asthmatics and th Accepted: November 9th, 2015 one of 11 control subjects (p<0.02).3 Furthermore, Martin, et al. reported that thirty-one of 55 th Published: November 9th, 2015 asthmatic adult patients were PCR-positive for Mycoplasma (n=25) or Chlamydia spp. (n=6) compared with 1 of 11 (9%) control patients.4 In both of those studies, M. pneumoniae was 3,4 confirmed primarily in lung biopsy specimens or in lavage fluid.3,4 Citation Saraya T, Kimura H, Takizawa H.
We performed comprehensive analysis for multiple pathogens, including M. pneu- Is mycoplasma pneumoniae infec- moniae, Chlamydophila pneumoniae, and common respiratory viruses (i.e., Respiratory Syn- tion associated with adult asthma exacerbation? Pulm Res Respir cytial Virus (RSV), Human rhinovirus (HRV), Human metapneumovirus (HMPV), influenza Med Open J. 2015; 2(4): 126-127. virus, human parainfluenza virus, human bocavirus) using PCR or real-time PCR techniques. doi: 10.17140/PRRMOJ-2-121 However, our preliminary data, obtained for both outpatient (n=29) and inpatient (n=15) sub- jects suffering from asthma attacks, did not detect M. pneumoniae or C. pneumoniae in the nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal swabs from these individuals.
In contrast, real-time PCR detected virus in 6.9% (n=2) and 46.7% (n=7) of subjects with asthma exacerbations in outpatient and inpatient settings, respectively.5 The incidence of virus-positive viral status was significantly higher in the latter group (p<0.002).5 This observa- tion was similar to the results obtained in a previous study that, using PCR-based viral diagnos- tics, detected viral respiratory infections in up to 50% of adults with asthma exacerbations.6 Notably, in a total of 15 hospitalized patients, 7 virus-positive cases (n=5, HRV; n=1, HMPV; n=1, RSV) had significantly lower values of SpO2 (81.4±3.9%) than those measured in the virus-negative group (n=8, SpO2: 91.8±1.3%, p<0.007), and the frequency of hypercapnea (PaCO2>45 Torr) was significantly higher in the virus-positive group (66.7%, n=4) than in the virus-negative group (0%; p= 0.014).5 Thus, in the context of social and economic costs, our preliminary data suggest that viral infection in asthmatic patients may be more important for case management than is M. pneumoniae infection in these patients. Larger studies will be needed to further address the role of M. pneumoniae in the exacerbation of asthma.
Copyright ©2015 Saraya T. This is an open CONFLICTS OF INTEREST access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in REFERENCES any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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