[Disturbances of polymorphonuclear neutrophil leukocyte chemiluminescence in patients with chronic or recurrent respiratory tract infections].

The disturbances of polymorphonuclear neutrophil leucocytes (PMNLs) may be considered as a one of the causes of chronic or recurrent respiratory tract infections (RTI). The study carried out on patients with chronic or recurrent RTI was aimed at attempting to assess the dependence of clinical manifestations of RTI on nonspecific PMNLs dependent cellular response status. We used the chemiluminescence (CL) assay to study the ability of PMNLs to generate free oxygen forms during phagocytosis process. CL response of PMNLs to chemotactic peptide FMLP in 48 chronic and/or recurrent RTI patients and in 50 healthy blood donors of similar age (control group) was evaluated. RTI do not seem to be dependent on decreased PMNLs count (mild neutropenia was found in 35% of patients), but they may result from impaired function of PMNLs. All the values of CL response in RTI patients were lower than the lowest value observed in control group and ranged from 2.9 to 27.6 x 10(3) cpm/10(3) PMNLs. The lowest of PMNLs CL test value were found in patients with infections of pulmonary tissue (recurrent pneumoniae). The patients with infections of higher parts of respiratory tract (nasal cavity, sinuses, pharynx, trachea and bronchi) did not present such levels of PMNLs function impairment.