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Background: The role of Chlamydia pneumonia in asthma has drawn much attention in recent years. Considering conflicting data about frequency of C. pneumonia in asthmatic subjects and, regarding that no such study has been done in Middle East, we assess the prevalence of C. pneumonia infections in patients with chronic stable and acute exacerbation of asthma and compared it with normal subjects.
Methods: 20 adult patients with chronic stable asthma and 21 patients with acute exacerbations of asthma and 41 matched control subjects were studied for presence of C. pneumonia using PCR and IgA and IgG assay.
Results: This study suggests that positive results of C. pneumonia IgA antibody are associated with both chronic stable and acute exacerbation of asthma, while IgG antibody and PCR are not.
Conclusions: Regarding PCR results which were statistically insignificant, it could be concluded that in our region C. pneumonia is not a major risk factor for either development or exacerbation of asthma.