Quantitative analysis of Staphylococcus aureus in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis under continuous ultrasound treatment

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Bacterial pathogens, in particular drug resistant strains, involved in chronic rhinosinusitis may result in treatment failure. Ultrasound waves are able to destroy bacterial population in sinus cavities and can recover patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twelve patients with chronic sinusitis and 10 healthy controls were treated by continuous ultrasound waves. Clinical specimens were collected before and after treatment. Serial diluted specimens were cultured on blood agar, chocolate and MacConkey agar plates for bacterial isolation. Bacterial DNA was extracted and used for Staphylococcus aureus detection using quantitative PCR. RESULTS: S. aureus was the most isolated bacterium (10 patients), which was eradicated from 8 patients after treatment. Using phenotypic methods at the beginning, 3 out of 10 healthy individuals were found to be positive. From 11 positive patients for S. aureus identified by real time qPCR, 9 showed significant reduction after treatment. In the healthy group, S. aureus was detected in 4 samples using qPCR, but they were clean at the second sampling. CONCLUSION: According to our phenotypic and molecular experiments, continuous ultrasound treatment effectively reduced the bacterial population in studied patients (p < 0.01). This was a hopeful basis for doing more studies with ultrasound therapy as a treatment option.