Background

Asthma is a chronic disease, the evolution of which is burdened by exacerbations that can have several causes, including respiratory infections which are most often viral. Nevertheless, a bacterial infection can be the cause of an asthma exacerbation.

Objectives

To Investigate the long-term impact of bronchial infection (BI) in patients with asthma.

Methods

Retrospective study of 98 patients with asthma followed between January 2019 and December 2022. We compared two groups: asthmatics with a BI and asthmatics without a BI. We studied the impact of a BI on long-term asthma disease.

Results

Our study included 68 women and 30 men aged between 10 and 80 years (41 years +15). Smoking was found in 33 cases (34%), hypertension in 8 cases and diabetes in 4 cases. Asthma was allergic in 44% of cases (n=43). BI was documented in 12 patients (12.2%). BI was more frequent in asthmatics over 55 years of age, in women, and in patients with polyposis, bronchial dilatation, or moderate to severe asthma (p=0.039). Restrictive and severe obstructive ventilatory disorders were more common in patients with a history of BI (p=0.004). BI was significantly associated with poorly controlled asthma (p=0.028). Pseudomonas BI was more common in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (p=0.049) and in patients with severe obstructive ventilatory disorder (p=0.033).

Conclusions

Bacterial airway infections are a factor in poor asthma control and severe asthma is a risk factor for BI. This vicious cycle deserves to be better studied to optimize patient management.