ABSTRACT
Pulmonary Nocardiosis [PN] is a severe and infrequent infection caused by Nocardia species, pathogen that can behave both as opportunistic as well as infectious with a high morbidity and mortality that mainly affects immunocompromised patients. In recent years, an increase in PN cases has been detected among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD]. The factors that are associated with its presence and determinants of its prognosis remain unknown. The aim of this study is to identify the frequency of nocardia in bronco alveolar lavage fluid [BALF] of patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Analyze the bronco alveolar lavage fluid [BALF] of patients suffering from COPD for presence of nocardia and determination of differential leukocyte count. Prospective study. This study was conducted at Tertiary Care Hospitals in Karachi from March 2012 till October 2012. It is a prospective study of COPD patients. The study comprises of 140 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with or without treatment. All patients were divided in two groups A and B according to gender, and each group was further divided according to age i.e. above 40 years and below 40 years. Out of 140 patients 68 turned out to be positive for Nocardia. Nocardiosis is considered to be uncommon in Pakistan, but out study suggests that prevalence of Nocardial infections in patients suffering from COPD is quite high and cases are not restricted to the classical immunocompromised host
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to determine Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid [BALF] differential leukocyte count [DLC] in patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] and to identify the predominant cell type in our set of population. It is a cross sectional study. This study was conducted at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan from March 2012 till October 2012. The study comprises of 140 patients with COPD with no treatment or poor compliance to treatment and no history of any interventional procedures. All patients have undergone pulmonary function tests [PFTs] to differentiate obstructive pattern disease from restrictive. Fiber optic bronchoscopy was also done, after which 10 cc of BALF was collected and run for DLC. Patients were divided in two groups A and B according to gender, and each group was further divided in to two subgroups on the basis of age i.e. above 40 years and below 40 years. All patients have higher percentage of lymphocytes as compared to polymorphs. A higher concentration of lymphocytes as compared to polymorphs in COPD patients is considered to be an uncommon in Pakistan as per literature survey is concerned, because very less work is done on BALF analysis. Our study suggests that percentage of lymphocytes in patients suffering from COPD is quite high and cases are not restricted to classical acute pulmonary infections