Key result
Rhinovirus infection is increasingly recognized as a cause of asthma and cystic fibrosis exacerbations, though its high prevalence in children risks coincidental detection in other infectious syndromes.
The use of sensitive PCR assays has expanded the understanding of rhinovirus clinical illness, highlighting its role in asthma and cystic fibrosis exacerbations, though high prevalence in children risks coincidental detection.
May warrant cautious rhinovirus attribution in pediatric asthma/CF exacerbations; leaves open causal confirmation via prospective studies.
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review is to summarize the recent changes in our understanding of the epidemiology and clinical manifestations of rhinovirus infection that have occurred as a result of the improved diagnostic sensitivity provided by the reverse transcriptase PCR assays. RECENT FINDINGS: Rhinovirus infection is now recognized as an important cause of acute exacerbations of asthma in school-aged children. Along with other respiratory viruses, rhinovirus infection is also a cause of exacerbations of cystic fibrosis. There is evidence that rhinovirus can infect the lower airways and may be associated with bronchiolitis and pneumonia in immunocompetent children and with lower respiratory tract disease in the immunocompromised host. SUMMARY: The use of nucleic acid hybridization-based assays has expanded our understanding of the spectrum of clinical illness that is associated with rhinovirus infection. The prevalence of rhinovirus infection in children is high and presents a risk for coincidental detection of rhinovirus in the face of other infectious syndromes. The detection of rhinovirus from patients with new or unusual clinical syndromes does not permit the assumption that rhinovirus is playing a causal role in the illness.
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BROWNLEE et al. (2008) conducted a review in Rhinovirus infection. Rhinovirus infection is increasingly recognized as a cause of asthma and cystic fibrosis exacerbations, though its high prevalence in children risks coincidental detection in other infectious syndromes.
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