Chlamydial Pneumonia and Asthma: A Potentially Important Relationship

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Abstract
In this issue ofJAMA, Hahn et al1document an interesting relationship between chlamydial pneumonia and asthma in adults using a matched comparison method. These investigators found that patients with serologically confirmedChlamydia pneumoniaeinfection (antibody titers greater than 1:64) were much more likely to develop bronchial asthma subsequent to their chlamydial infection than were seronegative patients (antibody titers less than 1:16). Nearly 30% of theChlamydia-exposed (seropositive) patients were later diagnosed as having asthmatic bronchitis, whereas only 7% of unexposed (seronegative) patients received the same diagnosis in the 6-month period after their respiratory illness. The context for this finding is a trend toward increasing incidence, morbidity, and mortality attributable to asthma— despite advances in diagnosis and treatment. During the 1980s, statistics relating to asthma showed distinct increases in mortality in the United States and in most industrialized countries.2,3Furthermore, a recent article demonstrated

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