Infection and Chemotherapy : Official Journal of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases

Home > Available Issues

Original Articles

Clinical Features and Microbiologic Characteristics of Haemophilus influenzae Infections in Adults

Jong Sup Lee, Byung Yeon Whang, Hee Jin Cheong, Woo Joo Kim, Seung Chull Park, Jong Hee Shin, Do Hyun Lee¹, Chang-Kyu Lee¹, Kyu-Jam Hwang², Young-Hee Lee²

Department of Interanl, Department oh Clinical Pathology¹, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea; Department of Clinical Pathology², Chonnam University Medical School, Kwangju, Korea; Laboratory of Molecular Bacteriology³, National Institute of Health, Seoul, Korea

Vol.18 Num.2 (p141~151)

Purpose : H. influenzae is one of the common causative microorganisms of respiratory tract infections in adults. Recently, ß-lactamase producing, ampicillin-resistant H. influenzae has become worldwide problem as well as in Korea. We studied to investigate the clinical features and microbiologic characteristics of H. influenzae infections in adults.
Materials & Methods : From March 1998 to September 1999. 68 patients were enrolled in this study. Clinical features of H. influenzae infections were investigated, 68 isolates were subjected to the ß-lactamase test, and 33 isolates were used for serotyping, biotyping, antibiotic susceptibility and outer membrane protein (OMP) analysis.
Results : Mean age of study patients was 68 years-old and the acquisition rate in community was 85%. Pneumonia and bronchitis were the most common type of infection such as 80%, sputum was the most common clinical specimen for H. influenzae isolation. 70% of patients had chronic underlying diseases. Non-typeable strains were 68% and ß-lactamase producing rate was 63%. There was no difference in the clinical features and prognosis of H. influenzae infection between the ß-lactamase positivie and -negative groups. The susceptibility of cefotaxime, azithromycin, and ciprofloxacin was 100% and that of cefaclor, cefuroxime was under 10% in spite of P-lactamase positivity. In OMP analysis, C and D types were dominant (64%).
Conclusion : H. influenzae caused acute respiratory infections in adults with chronic underlying disorders. This study shows higher ß-lactamase producing rate and antibiotic-resistance rate than that were reported previously. OMP analysis shows that two major types of strains cause clinical infections intensively.

Keywords : H. influenzae, β-lactamase, OMP