OROPHARYNGEAL BACTERİAL FLORA İN ASTHMATİC PATİENTS USİNG STEROİD THERAPY

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences in oropharyngeal microbiota in patients with asthma who were usinginhaled corticosteroids (ICS) compared to those in healthy individuals.Materials and Methods: A sample consisting of 100 oropharyngeal swabs was analyzed between April 2016 and May 2016. Due torecurrence, 1 asthmatic patient was excluded from the study. Common bacteriological culture techniques and the Vitek version 2.0(Biomerieux, France) automatization systems were used to obtain the bacteriological diagnosis.Results: The isolation of transitory flora bacteria in the control group was 88%, and 79.6 % in asthmatic group. There were nosignificant differences between the groups in respect of the cultured bacteria. Bacteria were recovered in 10/49 samples from the asthmaticpatients and in 6/50 samples from the non-asthmatic subjects. In the asthmatic group all the growths were those of female patients and in thecontrol group all were male. A statistically significant association was determined in respect of gender and the presence of growth bacteria inthe asthmatic patients (p:0.042). Cultured bacteria were observed to increase with age in the control group (p:0.021). There was nosignificant association in respect of the use of ICS and the presence of growth bacteria in the asthmatic patients (p = 0.838 ).Conclusions: E. coli, Klebsiella spp., Pseudomonas spp., Acinetobacter spp., Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) andMethicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA), Streptococcus pyogenes were found in the oropharyngeal swab specimens of theasthmatic subjects, as well as in some of the non-asthmatic group. Inhaled corticosteroids were not seen to have any obvious effect onoropharyngeal flora in the patients with asthma, which suggested that inhaled corticosteroids are safe for the treatment of bronchial asthma.