Search

The role of human adenovirus (HAdV) infection in different acute diseases, such as febrile exudative tonsillitis, conjunctivitis, and pharyngoconjunctival fever is well established. However, the relationships, if any, of HAdV persistence and reactivation in the development of the chronic adenotonsillar disease is not fully understood. The present paper reports a 3‐year cross‐sectional hospital‐based study aimed at detecting and quantifying HAdV DNA and mRNA of the HAdV hexon gene in adenoid and palatine tonsil tissues and nasopharyngeal secretions (NPS) from patients with adenotonsillar hypertrophy or recurrent adenotonsillitis. HAdV C, B, and E were detectable in nearly 50% of the patients, with no association with the severity of airway obstruction, nor with the presence of recurrent tonsillitis, sleep apnea or otitis media with effusion (OME). Despite the higher rates of respiratory viral coinfections in patients with HAdV, the presence of other viruses, including DNA and RNA viruses, had no association with HAdV replication or shedding in secretions. Higher HAdV loads in adenoids showed a significant positive correlation with the presence of sleep apnea and the absence of OME. Although this study indicates that a significant proportion (~85%) of individuals with chronic adenotonsillar diseases have persistent nonproductive HAdV infection, including those by HAdV C, B, and E, epithelial and subepithelial cells in tonsils seem to be critical for HAdV C production and shedding in NPS in some patients, since viral antigen was detected in these regions by immunohistochemistry in four patients, all of which were also positive for HAdV mRNA detection., Highlights • Adenoids and palatine tonsils from patients with chronic adenotonsilar disease are frequently infected with HAdV‐B, HAdV‐C and HAdV‐E.• Only a small proportion of patients with the chronic adenotonsilar disease has a productive adenoviral infection, characterized by the detection of viral gene expression.• There are no obvious association between adenovirus replication and viral coinfection.• HAdV infection was not associated with the severity of nasal obstruction or the presence of recurrent tonsillitis.

Background Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a common illness, yet little is known about its pathogenesis, including the role played by respiratory viruses. Methods A transversal prospective study was conducted to analyze the seasonality of CRS using real-time polymerase chain reaction to detect respiratory virus genomes in secretions and tissue samples from patients with CRS with and without nasal polyps. Results The frequency of viral detection was 41% (31/75). The respiratory virus most frequently detected was human rhinovirus, found in 18 patients (24%), followed by human metapneumovirus, human enterovirus, human respiratory sincicial virus, human adenovirus, human bocavirus, human coronavirus, and human influenza virus, detected in 12 (16%), five (6.6%), four (5.3%), four (5.3%), two (2.6%), two (2.6%), and one (1.3%) patient(s), respectively. Although none of the patients presented symptoms when the samples were collected, there was a peak in detection of the most prevalent virus in the autumn and winter seasons of both years, similar to the pattern that occurs in acute conditions. Conclusions The pattern of respiratory virus seasonality found in nasal mucosa, polyps, and paranasal sinus samples in patients with CRS reinforces the possibility of asymptomatic respiratory viral infections.

Respiratory viruses are frequently detected in association with chronic tonsillar hypertrophy in the absence of symptoms of acute respiratory infection (ARI). The present analysis was done in follow-up to a previous clinical study done by this same group. Nasopharyngeal washes (NPWs) were obtained from 83 of 120 individuals at variable times post adenotonsillectomy, in the absence of ARI symptoms. A look back at virus detection results in NPWs from the same 83 individuals at the time of tonsillectomy revealed that 73.5% (61/83) were positive for one or more viruses. The overall frequency of respiratory virus detection in post-tonsillectomy NPWs was 58.8%. Rhinovirus (RV) was the agent most frequently detected, in 38 of 83 subjects (45.8%), followed by enterovirus in 7 (8.4%), human metapneumovirus in 6 (7.2%), human respiratory syncytial virus in 3 (3.6%) and human coronavirus in 1 (1.2%). Remarkably, there was no detection of adenovirus (HAdV) or human bocavirus (HBoV) in asymptomatic individuals in follow-up of adenotonsillectomy. In keeping with persistence of respiratory DNA viruses in human tonsils, tonsillectomy significantly reduces asymptomatic shedding of HAdV and HBoV in NPWs.

INTRODUCTION: In order to better understand the pathophysiology of rhinosinusitis, several attempts have been made to create the disease in an animal model. Among the studied rodents each has its advantages and disadvantages. Rabbits are considered more appropriate for studies that require surgical manipulation or invasive procedures. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the most viable experimental model of rhinosinusitis in rabbits to be adopted in future studies. METHODS: An electronic search for studies with experimental models of rhinosinusitis in rabbits published in English and Portuguese between July of 1967 and January of 2013 was conducted in Medline, Pub Med, Cochrane, and CAPES databases, using the keywords "sinusitis", "rabbits", and "polyps". RESULTS: A total of 256 studies were retrieved, but in accordance with the inclusion and exclusion criteria, only ten studies were selected. Many different methods of response assessment were used in these studies. CONCLUSION: To date, there is no ideal experimental model for induction of acute or chronic rhinosinusitis in rabbits, but the rhinogenic model appears to be the most viable option for the continuity of studies of the disease. INTRODUÇÃO: Como forma de tornar possível o entendimento da fisiopatologia da rinossinusite é fundamental a transposição da doença em animais. Os coelhos são, dentre os roedores estudados, os animais considerados mais adequados para o estudo que exija manipulação cirúrgica ou procedimentos invasivos. Cada modelo experimental tem seus pontos favoráveis e desfavoráveis. OBJETIVO: Avaliar, em coelhos, o modelo experimental de rinossinusite mais viável a ser adotado em estudos futuros. MÉTODO: Foi realizada busca eletrônica de estudos com modelos experimentais de rinossinusite em coelhos usando as palavras-chave (sinusite/coelhos/pólipos) em inglês e português nas principais bases de dados eletrônicas: Medline, PubMed, Cochrane e CAPES, publicados no período de julho de 1967 a janeiro de 2013. RESULTADOS: Foram encontrados 256 artigos, mas de acordo com os critérios de inclusão e exclusão apenas 10 foram selecionados. Muitos métodos distintos de avaliação de resposta foram utilizados nesses estudos. CONCLUSÃO: Não existe, até o momento, um modelo experimental ideal para a indução de rinossinusite aguda ou crônica em coelhos, porém o modelo rinogênico parece ser a proposta mais viável para a continuidade dos estudos sobre a doença.

Objectives To evaluate the presence of viruses and bacteria in middle ear and adenoids of patients with and without otitis media with effusion (OME). Methods Adenoid samples and middle ear washes (MEW) were obtained from children with OME associated with adenoid hypertrophy undergoing adenoidectomy and tympanostomy, and compared to those obtained from patients undergoing cochlear implant surgery, as a control group. Specific DNA or RNA of 9 respiratory viruses (rhinovirus, influenza virus, picornavirus, syncytial respiratory virus, metapneumovirus, coronavirus, enterovirus, adenovirus and bocavirus) and 5 bacteria (S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, M. catarrhalis, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus) were extracted and quantified by real-time PCR. Results 37 OME and 14 cochlear implant children were included in the study. At the adenoid, virus and bacteria were similarly detected in both OME and control patients. At the middle ear washes, however, a higher prevalence of bacteria was observed in patients with OME (p = 0.01). S. pneumoniae (p = 0.01) and M. catarrhalis (p = 0.022) were the bacteria responsible for this difference. Although total virus detection was not statistically different from controls at the middle ear washes (p = 0.065), adenovirus was detected in higher proportions in adenoid samples of OME patients than controls (p = 0.019). Conclusions Despite both OME and control patients presented similar rates of viruses and bacteria at the adenoid, children with OME presented higher prevalence of S. pneumonia, M. catarrhalis in middle ear and adenovirus in adenoids when compared to controls. These findings could suggest that these pathogens could contribute to the fluid persistence in the middle ear.

Human bocavirus 1 (HBoV1) is associated with respiratory infections worldwide, mainly in children. Similar to other parvoviruses, it is believed that HBoV1 can persist for long periods of time in humans, probably through maintaining concatemers of the virus single-stranded DNA genome in the nuclei of infected cells. Recently, HBoV-1 was detected in high rates in adenoid and palatine tonsils samples from patients with chronic adenotonsillar diseases, but nothing is known about the virus replication levels in those tissues. A 3-year prospective hospital-based study was conducted to detect and quantify HBoV1 DNA and mRNAs in samples of the adenoids (AD), palatine tonsils (PT), nasopharyngeal secretions (NPS), and peripheral blood (PB) from patients undergoing tonsillectomy for tonsillar hypertrophy or recurrent tonsillitis. HBoV1 was detected in 25.3% of the AD samples, while the rates of detection in the PT, NPS, and PB samples were 7.2%, 10.5%, and 1.7%, respectively. The viral loads were higher in AD samples, and 27.3% of the patients with HBoV had mRNA detectable in this tissue. High viral loads and detectable mRNA in the AD were associated with HBoV1 detection in the other sample sites. The adenoids are an important site of HBoV1 replication and persistence in children with tonsillar hypertrophy. The adenoids contain high HBoV1 loads and are frequently positive for HBoV mRNA, and this is associated with the detection of HBoV1 in secretions.

Objective To evaluate the oscillations on the viral detection in adenotonsillar tissues from patients with chronic adenotonsillar diseases as an indicia of the presence of persistent viral infections or acute subclinical infections. Study design Cross-sectional prospective study. Setting Tertiary hospital. Methods The fluctuations of respiratory virus detection were compared to the major climatic variables during a two-year period using adenoids and palatine tonsils from 172 children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy and clinical evidence of obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome or recurrent adenotonsillitis, without symptoms of acute respiratory infection (ARI), by TaqMan real-time PCR. Results The rate of detection of at least one respiratory virus in adenotonsillar tissue was 87%. The most frequently detected viruses were human adenovirus in 52.8%, human enterovirus in 47.2%, human rhinovirus in 33.8%, human bocavirus in 31.1%, human metapneumovirus in 18.3% and human respiratory syncytial virus in 17.2%. Although increased detection of human enterovirus occurred in summer/autumn months, and there were summer nadirs of human respiratory syncytial virus in both years of the study, there was no obvious viral seasonality in contrast to reports with ARI patients in many regions of the world. Conclusion Respiratory viruses are continuously highly detected during whole year, and without any clinical symptomatology, indicating that viral genome of some virus can persist in lymphoepithelial tissues of the upper respiratory tract.

Chronic tonsillar diseases are an important health problem, leading to large numbers of surgical procedures worldwide. Little is known about pathogenesis of these diseases. In order to investigate the role of respiratory viruses in chronic adenotonsillar diseases, we developed a cross-sectional study to determine the rates of viral detections of common respiratory viruses detected by TaqMan real time PCR (qPCR) in nasopharyngeal secretions, tonsillar tissues and peripheral blood from 121 children with chronic tonsillar diseases, without symptoms of acute respiratory infections. At least one respiratory virus was detected in 97.5% of patients. The viral co-infection rate was 69.5%. The most frequently detected viruses were human adenovirus in 47.1%, human enterovirus in 40.5%, human rhinovirus in 38%, human bocavirus in 29.8%, human metapneumovirus in 17.4% and human respiratory syncytial virus in 15.7%. Results of qPCR varied widely between sample sites: human adenovirus, human bocavirus and human enterovirus were predominantly detected in tissues, while human rhinovirus was more frequently detected in secretions. Rates of virus detection were remarkably high in tonsil tissues: over 85% in adenoids and close to 70% in palatine tonsils. In addition, overall virus detection rates were higher in more hypertrophic than in smaller adenoids (p = 0.05), and in the particular case of human enteroviruses, they were detected more frequently (p = 0.05) in larger palatine tonsils than in smaller ones. While persistence/latency of DNA viruses in tonsillar tissues has been documented, such is not the case of RNA viruses. Respiratory viruses are highly prevalent in adenoids and palatine tonsils of patients with chronic tonsillar diseases, and persistence of these viruses in tonsils may stimulate chronic inflammation and play a role in the pathogenesis of these diseases.

Objective: Although there is a known role of virus in acute upper respiratory infections, few studies have explored the relationship between chronic diseases of Waldeyer’s ring and viral infections. This study aimed to analyze the presence of the main respiratory viruses in patients with chronic adenotonsillar diseases.Method: Nasal lavage and peripheral blood from 60 children with chronic adenotonsillitis or adenotonsillar hypertrophy were analyzed by RT-PCR for bocavirus, adenovirus, rhinovirus 1 and 2, enterovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza virus type 1 and 3, influenza virus A and B, and human coronavirus.Results: Virus infection was found in 66% of nasal lavage samples (40/60). The most prevalent virus was adenovirus (33.3%), followed by rhinovirus (30%), bocavirus (10%), enterovirus (8.3%), respiratory syncitial virus (5%), and influenza virus (5%). Parainfluenza virus and coronavirus were not detected in any sample. Co-infection was present in 24% of patients (14/60), especially ad...

Although CT scans are being increasingly used for diagnosis and management for choanal atresia, we present a case in which this exam led to a misdiagnosis of encephalocele. This occurred because the nasal roof can be unossified until one year of age, a physiological variation, known as chondrocranium. As nasal malformations can be associated, this child underwent surgical procedure, and the absence of encephalocele was identified only intra-operatively. The purpose of this case-report is to stress the presence of chondrocranium as a variation of anatomy, and that diagnosis of choanal atresia should be performed with radiological and endoscopic exams associated.