Correlation between Chlamydia pneumonia Infection and Childhood Asthma

Yum, Hye Yung; Choi, Jung Yun; Rheu, Jung Woo; Lee, Kyung Eun; Kim, Cheol Hong; Shon, Myung Hyun; Kim, Kyu Earn; Lee, Ki Young

Abstract

PURPOSE
Chlamydia pneumonia infection causes chronic recurrent infection, and is related to a broad spectrum of respiratory disease, and the specific antibody titer increases with age. As the interest in correlation between Chlamydia pneumonia infection and asthma has been recently increased, significant correlation with nonatopic asthma in adults has been proved, and in children the study results by using molecular biological techniques such as PCR and culture of patient's serum or nasal aspirate have been reported. We investigated the association between Chlamydia pneumonia infection and asthma with serum Chlamydia pneumonia specific antibody by ELISA of asthma patients who visited the hospital.
METHODS
We collected the sera from patient group who visited the pediatric department of Yonsei University Medical Center to be diagnosed as asthma and from control group who had no evidence of asthma, respiratory or infectious disease. Centrifused sera were kept in -20 degrees C refregerator. To detect the serum Chlamydia pneumonia specific IgG and IgA of patient and control groups, we used ELEGANCE Chlamydia pneumonia IgG ELISA and ELEGANCE Chlamydia pneumonia IgA ELISA (Bioclone, Varrickville, Australia) kits.
RESULTS
Serum Chlamydia pneumonia specific IgG and IgA ELISA were performed on patient group (55 males, 45 females) and control group (28 males, 29 females). The mean ages of patient and control groups were 6.8+/-2.8 and 6.3+/-3.4 years each and there was no significant difference. Positive rate to IgG in patient and control groups was 23.0% and 17.5% each (P=0.34). Positive rate to IgA in patient and control groups was 24.0% and 14.0% each (P=0.22). Positive rate to IgG and IgA in patient and control groups was 21.0% and 8.8% each (P=0.047).
CONCLUSION
There was significant correlation between Chlamydia pneumonia infection and childhood asthma by the result of serum Chlamydia pneumonia specific IgG and IgA ELISA of patient and control groups.