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Acute bacterial sinusitis risk increased by rhinovirus, M. catarrhalis
Upper respiratory viruses with the presence of rhinovirus and Moraxella catarrhalis are positively correlated with the risk for acute bacterial sinusitis, according to recent study findings published in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
Tasnee Chonmaitree, MD, and colleagues from the University of Texas Medical Branch evaluated 294 children (49% girls), followed-up for one year, aged 6 to 35 months to capture all viral upper respiratory infection (URI) episodes to determine clinical characteristics and complications of URI.
Tasnee Chonmaitree
There were 1,295 URI episodes, 52% of which occurred in girls. There were 103 episodes of URI complicated by acute bacterial sinusitis (ABS), yielding an 8% rate for ABS complicating URI.
Patients vaccinated with 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (Prevnar, Pfizer) more commonly had ABS (P=.001).
Seventy-three children had ABS episodes; 60% occurred in girls. During the 1-year follow-up, 70% of patients had one ABS episode, 19% had two episodes and 9% had three episodes.
Persistent symptoms (59%) was the most common reason for ABS diagnosis, followed by an acute/severe presentation (29%) and a biphasic course (13%).
ABS episodes with acute otitis media (AOM) occurred in 31% of patients.
There was a positive correlation when M. catarrhalis was present with ABS (P=.04). There was also a positive correlation between ABS complications and URI and rhinovirus (P=.01).
“ABS is a common bacterial complication of viral URI, second only after acute otitis media (AOM),” Chonmaitree told Infectious Diseases in Children. “Young children who escape AOM complication in the first week of URI, may later have ABS. Pneumococcal vaccination while prevents AOM does not prevent ABS. The risk of ABS complication increases with presence of rhinovirus and M. catarrhalis during URI.” — by Amber Cox
Tasnee Chonmaitree, MD, can be reached at Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555; email: tchonmai@utmb.edu.
Disclosure: The study was funded in part by the NIH.
