Frequency and Detection of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Pneumonia in Children by Nested Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

Introduction: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of major causes of viral respiratory tract disease in young children and infants. We aimed to study the frequency of respiratory syncytial virus and its subtypes in pneumonia and bronchopneumonia in pediatric patients less than two years old tested by nested polymerase chain reaction with the evaluation of routinely used methods of diagnosis which are clinical manifestations and chest X-ray. Material and Methods: The study included 70 patients exhibited lower respiratory tract symptoms in the form of pneumonia and bronchopneumonia. Their age ranged from two months to eighteen months. All participants were subjected to clinical examination, chest X-ray examination, nasopharyngeal aspirate (NPA) samples for microbiological examination and nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction for diagnosis of respiratory syncytial virus. Results: RSV was highly prevalent infection in our studied patients, as 60 patients (86%) out of 70 were positive. Children from 2-3 months were highly affected (43.3%) and rate of infection decreases with increase of age. RSV infection was statistically significant with some clinical findings and radiological findings. Conclusion: RSV is the most important etiological agent causing pneumonia and bronchopneumonia in infancy. Nasopharyngeal aspirate is a sensitive method in detecting viral infection during infancy. Nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction which is rapid and reliable technique may provide important diagnostic information in establishing the etiology and improving management of the patients.