Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae in the Lower Respiratory Tract of Patients with Chronic Bronchitis

Abstract

The frequency of colonization and intracellular localization of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) in the lower respiratory tract was determined in healthy adults and in clinically stable and acutely ill chronic bronchitis (CB) patients. NTHi was recovered from bronchial wash or bronchial brush specimens in 6 of 23 (26%) stable CB patients and in 1 of 15 (7%) CB patients with a respiratory exacerbation. No NTHi (0 of 26) was recovered from lower tract specimens of healthy adults undergoing anesthesia for elective surgery. Molecular typing of NTHi strains revealed that five of nine patients with stable CB had different strains in upper respiratory tract and bronchial wash/brush specimens collected simultaneously. Four stable patients with CB had different strains recovered on repeat bronchoscopy. These results demonstrate the frequent colonization of the lower airways of stable CB patients with multiple strains of NTHi. Bronchial biopsies also were examined for intracellular NTHi by in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence microscopy. Intracellular NTHi were found in 0 of 7 healthy adults, 8 of 24 patients with clinically stable CB, and 13 of 15 acutely ill CB patients. This observation suggests a role for intracellular infection by NTHi in the pathogenesis of exacerbations of CB.

Phagocytosis and Inflammation: Exploring the effects of the components of E-cigarette vapor on macrophages

“…1995) and chronic bronchitis patients (Bandi et al. 2001). We and others have shown that smokers and COPD patient alveolar macrophages (Hodge et al.…”

Infection as a comorbidity of COPD

“…However, the appropriate definition of colonisation is the presence of a pathogen that does not cause damaging effects to the host or elicit a host response. In contrast, several recent studies show that bacterial pathogens are associated with host inflammatory and immune responses in stable COPD [40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. These findings suggest that application of the term colonisation to the lower airway bacterial presence in COPD is a misnomer, because it is likely that it is a low-grade chronic infection, with significant pathophysiological consequences.…”

Phylogenetic relatedness and diversity of non-typable Haemophilus influenzae in the nasopharynx and middle ear fluid of children with acute otitis media

“…Children frequently NP-colonized by NTHi are more likely to develop acute otitis media (AOM) than less frequently colonized children (Faden et al, 1997;Harabuchi et al, 1994). Simultaneous detection of multiple isolates of NTHi from the same sample has been reported among aboriginal children with otitis media (Smith-Vaughan et al, 1996), among otitis-prone children in day care centres (St Sauver et al, 2000) and in cystic fibrosis patients (Bandi et al, 2001;Murphy et al, 1999), which may result from inadequate clearance of colonizing bacteria, exposure to multiple circulating strains or in vivo genetic recombinations in a specific host. It is not known whether NTHi isolates that express b-lactamases (responsible for resistance to b-lactam antibiotics such as penicillins, cephamycins and carbapenems) are phylogenetically related.…”