Identifying the viral respiratory tract pathogens in an acute attacks of the patients with asthma and COPD by chip technology

IDENTIFYING THE VIRAL RESPIRATORY TRACT PATHOGENS IN AN ACUTE ATTACKSOF THE PATIENTS WİTH ASTHMA AND COPD BY CHIP TECHNOLOGYAcute attacks in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) areimportant because of their effects on mortality, morbidity and reducing patient?s lifequality. Infections are responsible for 90 % of acute attacks. In these infections, about 50% there are bacteria, 30% viruses and 10-20 % atypical factors are found.Most common conventional tests to find these respiratory tract pathogens includes,isolation of the virus in cell culture (viral culture) and viral antigen determining byimmunflorescence (IF) methods. To diagnose in shorter time, in recent years new methodsusing DNA ?Chips? are developed. By applying DNA fragments to a small surface on the?Chip?, PCR products of a microorganism?s genome or all genome fragment of amicroorganism with unknown genome sequence are used in transcription analysis or ingenome comparing, by binding to a carrying surface.In current study, respiratory tract viral pathogens are investigated to determine usingDNA Chip technology acute attack aetiology in the patients who has asthma or COPD andadmitted to the hospital because of acute attacks.Sixty-eight patients were enrolled in the study, consisting of people consultedEmergency Service and Thorax Diseases Department of Celal Bayar University, Faculty ofMedicine, Manisa, in 2005-2006 for having respiratory distress; diagnosed earlier withasthma / COPD, or newly diagnosed with one of these diseases. Using the DNA ?Chip?method (bcs Biotect S.p.A., Italy); SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), influenzavirus A and B, parainfluenza virus type 1, type 2, type 3, adenovirus and respiratorysinsitial virus are investigated in the nasopharyngeal swabs of patients.Parainfluenza virus type 1 is found in two, and influenza virus B is found in one of the86 patients with acute attacks; totally viral aetiology is found in 3.5% of the patients.Since it?s a recently developed method and there isn?t any study with the same patientgroup and method such our study, it?s controversial whether our positive ratio is reflectingthe real ratio. Also to determine sensitivity and specifity of the method, the lack of viralculture which is accepted as ?gold standard? method for identifying viral respiratory tractpathogens, is another restricting and important factor for our study. Therefore, before usingDNA ?Chip? method to diagnose respiratory tract viruses as a routine, the valuations suchas sensitivity, specifity must be carefully done, and in routine practice another methodmust be used simultaneously.Key words: Asthma, COPD, chip, respiratory virusesII