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- Title
Is there relationship between isolated Aspergillus species and severity of asthma?
- Authors
Vakili, Mahshid; Mortezaee, Vida; Mahdaviani, Seyed Alireza; Poorabdollah, Mihan; Mirenayat, Maryam Sadat; Fakharian, Atefeh; Hassanzad, Maryam; Abastabar, Mahdi; Alialy, Masoud; Tavakoli, Mahin; Maleki, Maedeh; Hedayati, Mohammad T.
- Abstract
Introduction: Asthma is a heterogeneous and chronic inflammatory disease. Sensitivity to fungal allergens may be one of the risk factors associated with enhanced severity of asthma. Colonization of fungi in the tracheobronchial tree of patients with asthma lead to release of various fungal antigens which can increase severity of asthma symptoms. Therefore in the present study we evaluated the correlation between Aspergillus species colonisation in asthmatic patients and severity of asthma. Materials and Methods: During 13 months, 216 patients with mild to severe asthma and 30 healthy controls referred to two university hospitals from Tehran (Masih Daneshvari) and Sari (Imam) were included in the study. All included participants underwent pulmonary function tests to record FEV1 and FVC parameters and collection of sputum samples. Each collected sputum sample was underwent for direct microscopic examination mounted with 20% potassium hydroxide (KOH) and fungal culture. The samples for fungal culture were inoculated into malt extract agar (QUELAB, Canada). The cultured plates were incubated at 27°C for 7 days and examined daily for fungal growth. Each grown Aspergillus colonies were identified at species level by molecular methods. Finally, all achieved data from sputum culture and spirometry test were analysed by SPSS software. Result: Out of 216 asthma patients, 145 (67.1%) cases were positive for fungal growth in sputa samples. Of 264 isolated fungal colonies, 137 (51.9%) were Aspergillus species belong to 7 section. Aspergillus (51.9%, 137/264) was the most frequent isolated fungi followed by Candida spp. (29.5%, 78/264), Penicellium spp. (3.4%, 9/264). Among Aspergillus genus isolates, Aspergillus flavus (29.2%, 40/137) was the most prevalent species followed by A. fumigatus (27.7%, 38/137), A. niger and A. tubingensis with equal prevalence (11.7%, 16/137). Furthermore, the distribution of Aspergillus species were different in the mild, moderate and severe asthma groups. In the mild and severe asthma groups, the majority of species were Aspergillus fumigatus 26.1% (10/38) and 36.8% (14/38) which, followed by Aspergillus flavus 12.5% (5/40) and 30.0% (12/40) respectively, but in the moderate asthma group, the most common species was Aspergillus flavus 57.5% (23/40) followed by Aspergillus fumigatus 36.8% (14/38). The mean of FEV1 value had no significant decline (P>0.05) in different type of asthma and there was no significant effect on FEV1 value by Aspergillus isolates. We found the similar results for mean of FVC value in each groups of mild, moderate and severe asthma patients (P>0.05). In total, there was no significant changes of FEV1 and FVC values in patients with a culture positive sputum samples compared with those of negative results (P>0.05). Conclusion: Our result showed that A. flavus was the most prevalent species of Aspergillus airways of asthma patients. Although, Aspergillus colonisation in airways of asthma patients had no significantly effect on FEV1 and FVC value, the severity of asthma symptoms especially in severe asthma patients were increased.
- Subjects
IRAN; ASPERGILLUS; ASTHMA; CONFERENCES &; conventions; SEVERITY of illness index
- Publication
Current Medical Mycology, 2018, Vol 4, p102
- ISSN
2423-3439
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.18502/cmm.4.S1.2018.180