Absence of human rhinovirus and respiratory syncytial virus from bronchoalveolar lavage and bronchial biopsies of selected patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Previous studies have reported very different rates of human rhinovirus (HRV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) genome detection in nasal and sputum samples, but not in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and bronchial biopsy samples. Our study aimed to investigate the presence of HRV and RSV in the lungs of 31 consecutive patients with stable COPD (11 GOLD stage I, 11 II, and 9 III) and 22 control subjects (12 current or past smokers, and 10 non-smokers), who underwent diagnostic (e.g., lung cancer) and/or therapeutic (e.g., hemoptysis) fibreoptic bronchoscopy in a university hospital in Athens, Greece. Viral RNA of HRV and RSV were not detected in any of the samples of COPD patients or control subjects after being processed with real-time PCR.