The upper airway microbiota in children with asthma exacerbations admitted to the medium or intensive care.

A cross-sectional study was performed among children (aged 2-18) with a doctor-diagnosed asthma exacerbation that required admission to the medium (MC) or intensive care (ICU) in one of 11 participating hospitals in The Netherlands according to the Dutch guidelines. Samples from children aged 2-6 years from a prospective case-control study and from a longitudinal birth cohort were used as controls. Therefore, cases aged 2-6 years (n=87) were matched to healthy controls in a 1:2 ratio. We used 16S rRNA-gene sequencing to characterize the NP microbiota.Study objectives were 1) Compare nasopharyngeal microbiota between healthy controls and children admitted to the medium or intensive care with a severe asthma exacerbation. 2) Compare nasopharyngeal microbiota between children admitted to the medium- and intensive care with a severe asthma exacerbation. 3) Explore host- & environmental factors that impact the nasopharyngeal microbiota in children admitted to hospital with a severe asthma exacerbation.