The investigation of Respiratory Syncytial Virus by real time reverse transcriptase pcr in children with suspected lower respiratory tract infection

THE INVESTIGATION OF RESPIRATORY SYNCYTIAL VIRUS BY REAL TIMEREVERSE TRANSCRIPTASE PCR IN CHILDREN WITH SUSPECTED LOWERRESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTIONAytul Demirag, MD.Respiratory syncytial virus is the most important causative agent in newborns and infants withlower respiratory tract infections accross the world. This virus leads to severe bronchiolitisand pneumonia which requires hospitalization in infants.Sixty nine children younger than 2 years old with lower respiratory tract infectionshospitalized in pediatrics unit in our hospital were included. RSV-real time reversetranscriptase PCR was studied from nasopharyngeal samples of all patients. The frequency ofRSV was 56.5 % in our study which is higher than previous studies reported in our country.We think that this detected high ratio is due to the high sensitivity of our PCR technique incomparison to others. In addition, we determined subgroup of RSV with this technique andfound that RSV A and RSV B were 84.5 % and 15.5 %, respectively. These ratios suggest thatthese subgroup may be concordant and one may be more dominant than the other inepidemics.In our study, RSV was more prevalent (61.8 %) in 0-6 months old infants than olderchildren. However, this difference was not statistically significant. RSV infection has aseasonal prediliction and is more prevalent in winter and spring months in our region likeother regions with similar climates.In conclusion, RSV infection is a significant cause of mortality and morbidity ininfants and small children. We think that rapid diagnosis of RSV infections is essential interms of starting appropriate treatment, avoiding unnecessary antibiotic use reducinghospitalization period and preventing nosocomial infections by isolating these patients .Therefore, we think that it will be beneficial using high sensitive, specific and rapidmolecular tecniques in the diagnosis of RSV infections in daily practice.