Abstract
Aim. To study the number of neutrophils in the oral cavity, their bactericidal potential, to assess as an indicator for predicting the course of recurrent bronchitis (J40) and community-acquired focal pneumonia in children.
Methods. 87 children between 5 and 10 years old, including 52 children with recurrent bronchitis and 35 with focal community-acquired pneumonia were observed. The control group consisted of 37 conditionally healthy children of a similar age. Viral antigens were studied by chemiluminescence immunoassay. Oral neutrophil counts and functional activity were determined. Antibacterial antibodies were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
Results. 70.11% of patients had a viral antigen, and 57.47% had immunoglobulins M and G against bacterial pathogens. Oral neutrophil counts increased in the main group compared to the control group: up to 163.8±26.5 cells (p <0.001) in recurrent bronchitis, to 110.9±25.5 (p <0.05) in community-acquired pneumonia. By the recovery period, the number of oral neutrophils counts decreased in recurrent bronchitis (1.7 times higher compared to the control group, p <0.01) and remained practically unchanged in community-acquired pneumonia (115.0±26.9, p <0.05). Myeloperoxidase level had opposite changes for the groups compared to the control group: with recurrent bronchitis, it was 1.61±0.09 to the level in the control group (p <0.05), with community-acquired pneumonia — 0.73±0.09 to the level in the control group (p <0.001). The level of lysosomal cationic proteins decreased to 0.77±0.09 to the level in the control group (p <0.05) in recurrent bronchitis, and to 0.80±0.09 (p <0.05) in pneumonia.
Conclusion. In inflammation of the respiratory tract, neutrophil migration to the oral cavity, as well as myeloperoxidase level, increases, indicators of spontaneous luminol-dependent chemiluminescence are activated, and a deficiency of lysosomal cationic proteins occurs; this prevents the penetration of the pathogen into the lower respiratory tract.