TY - JOUR T1 - Seasonality in airway pathogens during the first year after lung transplantation: A single center experience JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 40 IS - Suppl 56 SP - P2445 AU - Zsuzsanna Kovats AU - Zoltan Sutto AU - Gabriella Murakozy AU - Aniko Bohacs AU - Csaba Vajai AU - Krisztina Czebe AU - Gyorgy Losonczy AU - Veronika Muller Y1 - 2012/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P2445.abstract N2 - After lung transplantation (LuTx) high level of immunosuppression is needed to prevent rejection, which makes recipients more susceptible to infections. Pulmonary infections are a major clinical problem during the first postoperative year and regular surveillance examinations and immediate adequate treatment is mandatory. As seasonality of respiratory tract infections is well known in chronic pulmonary diseases, we assessed pathogen spectrum and number of infections in the first postoperative year in LuTx recipients.Airway pathogens registered during the first posttransplant year in 16 Hungarian LuTx patients (underlying disease: cystic fibrosis: 8, interstitial lung disease: 4, obstructive lung disease: 3, primary pulmonary hypertension: 1) were analyzed. Microbiological samples were taken from upper and/or lower respiratory tract and serum as part of the routine care. Number of positive samples was analyzed according summer (S=March to August) and winter (W=September to February) period.A total of 107 infections were registered during the first posttransplant year. The most frequent pathogens were Gram negative bacteria (n=48) and fungi (n=33). Total number of respiratory infections in S were significantly less frequent as compared to W (S=40, W=67; including Gram positive: S=8, W=11; Gram negative: S=16, W=31; fungi: S=13, W=20; other: S=4, W=4) independent of the season when LuTx was performed. We report increased number of respiratory tract infection in W period in the first postoperative year in LuTx recipients. More intensive vigilance for possible infections is needed during the W period in these patients. ER -