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Attachment of bacteria to tonsillar epithelium during acute tonsillitis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2007

Lars-Eric Stenfors*
Affiliation:
Departments of Otolaryngology, University of Tromsö, Tromsö, Norway and Central Hospital of Keski-Pohjanmaa, Kokkola, Finland
Simo Räisänen
Affiliation:
Clinical Laboratory, Central Hospital of Keski-Pohjanmaa, Kokkola, Finland.
*
Lars-Eric Stenfors, M.D., Dept. of Otolaryngology, Central Hospital of Keski-Pohjanmaa, SF-67200 Kokkola, Finland.

Abstract

Epithelial cells were scraped from the tonsillar surfaces of 15 patients with current acute tonsillitis (AT) and of 15 individually matched healthy persons. The cellular mixture was stained with acridine orange and bacteria seen to be attached to the epithelial cells under the fluorescent microscope were calculated. Conventional bacterial culturing was also performed simultaneously. Significantly more bacteria were attached to epithelial cells from the AT group than from the controls (>10 attached bacteria per cell p = 0.0103, >50 attached bacteria per cell p 0.0212). In vivo determination of bacteria attached to epithelial cells offers prospects of gaining a better understanding of the aetiopathogenesis of acute tonsillitis.

Type
Main Articles
Copyright
Copyright © JLO (1984) Limited 1991

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