title: The Role of Chlamydia in Upper Respiratory Tract Infections.
abstract: Although Chlamydia pneumoniae and Chlamydia psittaci are well-established causes of community-acquired pneumonia, little is known about the role of Chlamydia species in upper respiratory tract infections. C. pneumoniae may play a role in the pathogenesis of acute otitis media. Although C. pneumoniae has been isolated from the middle-ear fluid of children with otitis, children in whom the organism was isolated from middle-ear fluid improved despite being treated with antibiotics that are not active against C. pneumoniae. Although many patients with community-acquired pneumonia caused by C. pneumoniae have symptoms suggestive of sinusitis, there is only one report of isolation of the organism from the maxillary sinus of a patient with sinusitis. Studies of the association with pharyngitis are all based on serology, which often has a poor correlation with isolation of the organism by culture.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics and Medicine, State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203-2098, USA. E-mail: mhammerschlag@pol.net
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Hammerschlag