Hospital based cross sectional study on bacteriological isolates of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a group of disorders characterized by permanent or minimally reversible expiratory airflow limitation, and includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. One of the common symptoms of COPD is the development of episodes of acute worsening of respiratory functions which cause severe breathlessness and is termed as acute exacerbations of COPD. Several factors influence the natural course of the disease including the contribution of bacterial infections in causing acute exacerbations by infecting the lower respiratory tract. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was carried out from July 2016 to July 2017 in the department of Microbiology, SKIMS Medical College. A total of 104 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Demographic data, anthropometric data, and clinical data were recorded on a pretested questionnaire. All the patients were subjected to sputum examination which included culture and antibiotic sensitivity. Results: The mean age of the studied patients was 50.9 ± 18.9 years with the disease most prevalent in the age group of > 55 years where the prevalence was 66%. Most of the studies patients were males 60(57.7%) of which 51(85%) were smokers. 28(26.9%) patients had growth of normal flora on the sputum culture while Gram positive and Gram Negative organisms were isolated in 20(19.2%) and 17(16.3%) patients respectively. On Antibiotic sensitivity tests only 9(8.7%) sample was sensitive to Ciprofloxacin, Levofloxicin, Amikacin, Ofloxcin, Imepenum, Pipercillin, Gentamycin, Co-trimoxazole while 6(5.8%) samples were sensitive to Linezolid , Vancomycin, Ceftriaxone, Cefotaxime and Amoxy-clavulinic acid. Conclusion: AECOPD is one of the common lung disorder encountered in clinical practice and sputum culture and sensitivity is one of the good and less expensive methods to study the etiology and associated conditions with AECOPD. Antibiotic sensitivity also helps in determining antibiotic protocol treatments in patients with AECOPD for better prognosis and reducing morbidity and mortality associated with the disease.