Microbial pattern of acute infective exacerbation of chronic obstructive airway disease in a hospital based study.

Chronic bronchitis is associated with acute exacerbation, most often infective in origin. In order to study the bacteriological profile in such cases a total of 58 patients were enrolled in this study from the chest clinic of our hospital. The male to female ratio was 2 to 1. Mean age of study group was 47 years. All patients had increased cough and sputum production. Barlett count, gram stain and sputum cultures were done for all patients. IgM and IgG antibodies for M. pneumoniae by ELISA were estimated in all cases. The etiological diagnosis could be established in 72% cases. S. pneumoniae (25.8%), P. aeruginosa (12%), Klebsiella sp (10.3%), B. catarrhalis (3.4%), S. aureus (1.7%) were isolated. Although M. pneumoniae was not cultured it was demonstrated serologically in 20% of cases. H. influenzae was not isolated in any case. The frequency of isolating an etiological agent increased with severity of dysponea.