Chlamydia pneumoniae antibodies and adult-onset asthma / 39

Hahn DL, Routes JM, Nelson HS J All Clin Immunol 2000; 106:404**

Both diagnosis (via microbiologic isolation) and association (via epidemiological methods) have been used to study the role of infections in asthma. Diagnosis is appropriate in the study of individual patients suffering disease; association studies are appropriate when studying populations. Despite some dissent, serological criteria for diagnosing acute C. pneumoniae infection are well established; criteria for diagnosing chronic infection are not.

Other than taking pieces of lung, we currently lack sensitive methods to diagnose chronic lung infection in asthma.