Role of pathogenic bacteria in asthma disease: meta-analytic study ; Rôle de bactéries pathogènes dans la maladie de l’asthme : étude méta-analytique ; Role of pathogenic bacteria in asthma disease: meta-analytic study: Impact of pathogenic bacteria in asthma exacerbations

Background. Asthma is a multifactorial chronic inflammatory disease, whose progression is accentuated by the occurrence of exacerbations, which can have multiple origins: pneumallergens, smoking, pollution, chemicals, drugs and respiratory infections (viral). Recent discoveries suggest that certain pathogenic bacteria are causally associated with asthma exacerbations.Objective. In view of the fact that certain pathogenic bacteria are causally associated with asthma exacerbations, we examined their impact in the occurrence of these paroxysms in asthmatics. The first objective of this study was to determine whether there is a positive and statistically significant association between bacterial and the occurrence of asthma exacerbations. To assess this association, we compared the prevalence of bacterial infection between a group of exacerbated asthmatics and a group of stable asthmatics. The second objective was to identify any bacterial species that might be involved in the exaggeration of symptoms in asthmatics.Methods. Based on the MOOSE guidelines, five electronic databases were used to perform the literature search, namely: PubMed, ScienceDirect, GoogleScholar, SpringerLink and Scopus, based on combinations of the following keywords: asthma, exacerbation, pathogenic bacteria, bacterial infections, exacerbated asthmatics and triggering infectious factors, with the Boolean operators “and”, “or”.Results. From a total of 5918 articles, 54 were selected for preliminary eligibility. Of these, 24 studies met the inclusion criteria and were deemed eligible. Results suggest that patients with exacerbated asthma had 2.8 times higher prevalences of bacterial infections than stable asthma patients (OR= 2.82; 95% CI = [2.00-3.99]; I2=31%). The association, therefore, between having a respiratory infection bacterial and the occurrence of exacerbations is positive and statistically significant (p-value<0.00001⇒ p< 0.05; OR = 2.82 ⇒ OR ≠ 1). In addition, fifteen bacterial species implicated were identified, with a ...