[Q fever in acute exacerbation of chronic lower respiratory tract infection]

We studied the effect of Q fever in acute exacerbation of chronic lower respiratory tract infection. The subjects consisted of 80 cases with acute exacerbation of chronic lower respiratory tract infection treated during the period from March 2002 till October 2004. Q fever was diagnosed using a PanBio Coxiella burnetii ELISA test kit. Two cases (2.5%) were positive for IgM in the acute stage, and were diagnosed as having acute infection by C. burnetii. They were elderly women with bronchiectasis, aged 76 and 82. They had no history of keeping cats or dogs, but the onset of acute exacerbation of chronic lower respiratory tract infection was June and March which is the breeding seasons for cats and dogs. Acute exacerbation of chronic lower respiratory tract infection were considerd to be a mixed infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (the 76-year-case) and Haemophilus influenzae (the 82-year-case). It is concluded that C. burnetii can induce exacerbation of chronic lower respiratory tract infection, their cases were considerd to be mixed infection with C. burnetii and other bacteria.