Respiratory DNA viruses are undetectable in nasopharyngeal secretions from adenotonsillectomized children

Martins, Ronaldo Bragança; Rocha, Lucas Penna; Prates, Mirela Moreira; Gagliardi, Talita Bianca; Biasoli, Balduino; Leite, Marcelo Junqueira; Buzatto, Guilherme; Hyppolito, Miguel Angelo; Aragon, Davi Casale; Tamashiro, Edwin; Valera, Fabiana Cardoso Pereira; Arruda, Eurico; Anselmo-Lima, Wilma Terezinha

Respiratory viruses are frequently detected in association with chronic tonsillar hypertrophy in the absence of symptoms of acute respiratory infection (ARI). The present analysis was done in follow-up to a previous clinical study done by this same group. Nasopharyngeal washes (NPWs) were obtained from 83 of 120 individuals at variable times post adenotonsillectomy, in the absence of ARI symptoms. A look back at virus detection results in NPWs from the same 83 individuals at the time of tonsillectomy revealed that 73.5% (61/83) were positive for one or more viruses. The overall frequency of respiratory virus detection in post-tonsillectomy NPWs was 58.8%. Rhinovirus (RV) was the agent most frequently detected, in 38 of 83 subjects (45.8%), followed by enterovirus in 7 (8.4%), human metapneumovirus in 6 (7.2%), human respiratory syncytial virus in 3 (3.6%) and human coronavirus in 1 (1.2%). Remarkably, there was no detection of adenovirus (HAdV) or human bocavirus (HBoV) in asymptomatic individuals in follow-up of adenotonsillectomy. In keeping with persistence of respiratory DNA viruses in human tonsils, tonsillectomy significantly reduces asymptomatic shedding of HAdV and HBoV in NPWs.