The European respiratory journal : official journal of the European Society for Clinical Respiratory Physiology
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Multicenter Study
Association of nasopharyngeal microbiota profiles with bronchiolitis severity in infants hospitalised for bronchiolitis.
Little is known about the relationship between the specific airway microbiota composition and severity of bronchiolitis. We aimed to identify nasopharyngeal microbiota profiles and link these profiles to acute severity in infants hospitalised for bronchiolitis. We conducted a multicentre prospective cohort study of 1005 infants (age <1 year) hospitalised for bronchiolitis over three winters, 2011-2014. ⋯ The rate of intensive care use was highest in infants with a Haemophilus-dominant profile and lowest in those with a Moraxella-dominant profile (20.2% versus 12.3%; unadjusted OR 1.81, 95% CI 1.07-3.11, p=0.03). After adjusting for 11 patient-level confounders, the rate remained significantly higher in infants with Haemophilus-dominant profiles (OR 1.98, 95% CI 1.08-3.62, p=0.03). These findings were externally validated in a separate cohort of 307 children hospitalised for bronchiolitis.