Detection Of Rhinovirus-associated Asthma Exacerbation in Egyptian Children

Abstract

Asthma is a highly prevalent, chronic respiratory condition characterized by reversible airflow obstruction, airway hyper-responsiveness, and airway inflammation producing symptoms of shortness of breath, cough, wheezing, and chest tightness. Although, there is no clear consensus definition for asthma exacerbation, clinical trials usually define a severe exacerbation as the need for treatment with systemic corticosteroids, hospital admission or emergency treatment for worsening asthma, or a decrease in morning peak flow >25% baseline on two consecutive days . These episodes are distressing to patients and result in considerable utilization of health care resources and loss of work productivity and school attendance, moreover it represent a public health burden and costy problem. Recent epidemiological studies clearly outline the link between respiratory viral infections especially rhinovirus and exacerbation of allergic asthma, leading to increased morbidity and mortality.

So, this cross-sectional study aimed to demonstrate the association between Rhinovirus infection by sputum and nasopharyngeal aspirate PCR and asthma flare ups (exacerbation) in Egyptian children. This study was conducted on 31 asthmatic children recruited from pediatric chest clinic Children's hospital and the Emergency room,Ain shams university during the period from September 2014 to October 2015.The study group consisted of 15 males (48.8%) and 16 females (51.6%),and their ages ranged between7 months to 12 years. All studied patients were subjected to the following: Full medical history, thorough clinical examination, Chest x-ray, sputum PCR,Nasopharyngeal swab was done for infants and children below the age of 7 years andSputum samples were taken from children 7 years and above. Collected data were reviewed and statistical analysis was done using SPSS(statistical package for social science) version 18.