Bronchial asthma and Chlamydia pneumoniae antibodies in children aged 4-8 years in Olomouc district

Abstract

BACKGROUND. Although several studies have demonstrated an association between infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae and asthma, these were mainly limited to exacerbation of symptoms in adults with known asthma OBJECTIVE. We investigated the role of C. pneumoniae infection in l49 atopic children with chronic cough and asthma, comparing them with 241 control non-atopic subjects presenting at Olomouc hospital between 1999 and 2003 with non-specific symptoms (temperature above normal (subfebrile), abdominal pain, arthralgia, and other symptoms.METHODS. The levels of C. pneumoniae-specific antibodies were measured using Chlamydien-rELISA kits (Medac, Hamburg, Germany).RESULTS. In a group of 83 atopic children with chronic cough, IgM and IgG antibodies to C. pneumoniae were demonstrated in 20 children (24 %). Among children with bronchial asthma, positive antibody was present in 29 children (44 %; /p = 0,052/); of this number, 24 (36 %; /p = 0,06/) had IgM and IgG antibodies while 5 children (8 %) had IgA and IgG antibodies against C. pneumoniae. A group of non-atopic children with non-specific symptoms included 38 children (16 %) with antibody positivity; 27 children (11 %) with IgM and IgG antibodies and 11 children (5 %) with IgA and IgG antibodies against C. pneumoniae.CONCLUSIONS. Asthma in children was associated with elevated levels of IgM and IgG antibodies to C. pneumoniae.

Chlamydia pneumoniae and chronic asthma: Updated systematic review and meta-analysis of population attributable risk

“…Ten pediatric asthma studies from 7 countries met inclusion criteria (Table 1) [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Nine studies reported peripheral blood biomarkers (serology in 8, culture in 1) and 1 reported on nasal and/or induced sputum specimens.…”

“…Another positive study reported that Cp biomarker positivity was associated with non-atopic asthma [14]. The fifth positive study compared atopic asthma with non-atopic controls, raising the possibility of confounding by atopic status [13]. Of the five studies reporting no significant biomarker association with chronic asthma, one reported a positive association of Cp IgM and acute exacerbations (P = 0.03) [16], and another found a positive association of Cp IgA and asthma in the subgroup…”

“…For example, Kocabas et al [26] used relatives of cases as controls, which probably biased results towards the nul because family members are likely to share viruses and bacteria. Another source of bias is the all too common practice in asthma case-control studies to conflate asthma and atopy by comparing, for example, an atopic case group with a non-atopic control group (or vice versa), as was done by Kopriva et al [13]. Variability in biomarker methodology included differences in laboratory test methods and use of different criteria for positive and negative results.…”