The Role Of The Chlamydia Pneumoniae In The Pathegenesis Of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Objective : To investigate the association of chlamydia pneumoniae infection with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).Mothods: 47 patients with acute exacerbation of COPD were selected, which were divided into three groups: group I of 14 cases with mild COPD, groupâ…¡of 18 cases with moderate COPD and group â…¢ of 15 cases with severe COPD; 48 patients with non-COPD were selected as controls, 17 of these with hemoptysis, 6 of these with untrue hemoplysis and 25 of these with lung cancer with only node in the lung. There is no significant difference in sex, age and smoking status between COPD patients and controls and between groupâ… ,â…¡,â…¢. Chlamydia pneumoniae DNA in sputum and in bronchial secretion were measured by fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR)Results: Chlamydia pneumoniae was detected positively in 1 (7.14%) of group I, 2 (11.11%) of group â…¡,and 2(13.33%) of group â…¢, with no significant difference between these groups. The prevalence of chlamydia pneumoniae infection in patients with acute exacerbation of COPD was significantly higher than that in non-COPD controls (P<0.05). Conclusion: Chlamydia pneumoniae infection exists in acute exacerbation of COPD, which shows that chlamydia pneumoniae infection is associated with acute exacerbation of COPD and that chlamydia pneumoniae infection may be involved in pathogenesis of COPD. How chlamydia pneumoniae infection plays a role in the pathogenesis of COPD remains to be studied further.