[Comparative characteristics of the Haemophilus influenzae strains isolated from healthy children and from patients with acute and chronic bronchopulmonary diseases]. / Sravnitel'naia kharakteristika shtammov Haemophilus influenzae, vydelennykh ot zdorovykh detei i bol'nykh ostrymi i khronicheskimi bronkholegochnymi zabolevaniiami.

The comparative biochemical and serological characterization of 424 H. influenzae strains isolated from healthy children and patients with acute and chronic bronchopulmonary diseases is presented. As the result of biotyping H. influenzae strains, 82.3-90.9% of the strains isolated from both healthy children and patients with acute and chronic bronchopulmonary diseases were found to belong to the first three biotypes according to M. Kilian's classification. Among H. influenzae strains isolated from healthy children no capsular variants were detected in the coagglutination test. From patients with acute and chronic diseases of respiratory organs, as a rule, the capsular variants of H. influenzae were isolated (94.4% and 98.1%, respectively). In patients with chronic pneumonia biotypes I, II and III, more seldom biotype V, proved to be mo st invasive. In the determination of the minimum inhibiting concentration of ampicillin, no H. influenzae strains resistant to this antibiotic were detected.

[Etiology of acute and chronic bronchopulmonary diseases in children. II. A study of the specific immune response by counterimmunoelectrophoresis and the complement fixation and passive hemagglutination reactions]. / Etiologiia ostrykh i khronicheskikh bronkholegochnykh zabolevanii u detei. Soobshchenie II. Izuchenie spetsificheskogo immunnogo otveta metodom vstrechnogo immunoélektroforeza i RSK i reaktsiei passivnoi gemaggliutinatsii.

Specific immune response to Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae has been studied in 158 children with acute pneumonia and pleuritis and 128 children with chronic pneumonia by countercurrent immunoelectrophoresis (CIE) and in the complement fixation (CFT) and passive hemagglutination (PHA) tests. The use of CIE leads to the detection of antibodies to H. influenzae in 23.7% of children with acute pneumonia and in 46.9% of children with chronic pneumonia. In the CFT antibodies to H. influenzae are also more often detected in children with chronic pneumonia (48%) than in those with acute respiratory infections (12.2%). In the PHA test high titers of antibodies to type b H. influenzae capsular polysaccharide occur in 11.9% of children with acute pneumonia and in 8.2% of children with chronic pneumonia.

[Etiology of acute and chronic bronchopulmonary diseases in children. I. The results of a bacteriological and immunological study]. / Etiologiia ostrykh i khronicheskikh bronkholegochnykh zabolevanii u detei. Soobshchenie I. Rezul'taty bakteriologicheskogo i immunologicheskogo issledovaniia.

The bacteriological study of tracheal aspirate, sputum and bronchial washings obtained from 130 children with acute pneumonia and pleuritis and from 186 children with chronic pneumonia was carried out. In the samples of pleural exudate, urine and blood serum from the patients with acute pneumonia and pleuritis the presence of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae antigens was determined by the method of countercurrent immunoelectrophoresis (CIE). S. pneumoniae and H. influenzae were found to be of different importance in the pathogenesis of acute and chronic bronchopulmonary diseases in children. In acute pneumonia and pleuritis in children who had not been treated with antibiotics pneumococci were isolated in 65.9% of cases and H. influenzae, in 20.4% of cases. In children with chronic pneumonia at the period of exacerbation H. influenzae dominated in the microflora (79%), while pneumococci were isolated 31.9% of cases. The use of CIE permitted the detection of pneumococcal antigen in 21.8% of those exudate samples which had shown no bacterial growth after inoculation. H. influenzae antigen was detected in pleural exudate in 5.4% of cases. In concentrated urine obtained from the children with acute pneumonia and pleuritis pneumococcal antigen was detected in samples from 29.6% of patients, and in nonconcentrated urine the occurrence of this antigen was reduced by half.