Upper Respiratory Tract Infection

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Upper respiratory tract infection (URI) is one of the common diseases which has been found out in the outpatient setting. It can be either the common cold which is usually mild and self-limited or life-threatening illness like epiglottises. Bacteria and viruses are the common causes of URI. Bacterial primary infection or super infection usually needs a targeted therapy.

It has been noticed that respiratory infection affects both lower and upper tract infection. As per the research made, the upper respiratory tract infection is the common one that involves influenza, cold, laryngitis, sinusitis, croup, etc. which are found usually in children and tonsillitis.

Risk Factors on Upper Respiratory Tract Infection

Usually the URI comes frequently during winter season due to overcrowding. Adults get cold on the average of two to four times annually. Due to antigentic variation of respiratory viruses, there is a repeated circulation of such problems in the community. A corzya syndrome is the one of the common causes which had been noticed by the physician in U.S.

There are common upper respiratory tract infections’ terms that are defined as:

Tracheitis - It is inflammation of the trachea and subglottic area
Rhinosinusitis or Sinusitis - It is the inflammation of the nares and paranasal sinuses, including frontal, ethmoid, maxillary and sphenoid.
Nasopharyngitis (rhinopharyngitis or the common cold) - It is inflammation of the hypo pharynx, pharynx, nares, uvula, and tonsils.
Rhinitis - It is inflammation of the nasal mucosa
Epiglottitis (supraglottitis) - It is inflammation of the superior portion of the larynx and supraglottic area.
Pharyngitis - It is inflammation of the hypopharynx, pharynx, uvula and tonsils.
Laryngotracheitis - It is inflammation of the trachea, larynx and subglottic area.
Laryngitis - It is inflammation of the larynx

Symptoms of Upper Respiratory Tract Infection

There are many symptoms of this illness that you will come across that involves sore throat, cold and cough, blocked nose, runny nose, fever, earache, headache, sensitive feeling to cold or warm water. You can see the symptoms 1-3 days after they are exposed to virus. The symptoms stay for almost 10 days as the infection does not stay longer.

There are different types of respiratory tract infections because of which symptoms of every type vary. Other than the common symptoms mentioned patients have to face the symptoms like:

Influenza Symptoms: There is the experience of sudden flu which the patient faces without prior warning and which are worse than regular cold and cough. Other than this, high fever, chills, headache, weakness, body aches and fatigue are usually experienced by the patients.
Laryngitis Symptoms: In such symptoms, hoarseness and voice loss, with a severe sore throat is faced by the patient.
Sinusitis Symptoms: Sinusitis symptoms are usually followed by cold which does not go away easily and commonly include pain in the forehead and cheeks.
Croup Symptoms: URI is also common in children which occur at night. The croup symptom can be harsh, breathing sound called stridor.

Diagnosis

To diagnose URI, you can follow either of the tests that are mentioned below.

Laboratory Test: As said earlier, the common cause of upper respiratory tract infection is the virus and hence, laboratory investigations and radiologic studies are limited to play a diagnostic role. Rapid antigen detection, viral culture or polymerase chain reaction can examine the virus on nasopharyngeal swab that is indicated among patients for whom antiviral therapy is advised. Other test similar to this is also available to find the respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus and parainfluenza virus. Due to the use of reverse-transcriptase PCR, it has become possible to diagnose the enter virus and rhinovirus infections; however it is not available in clinical care yet.

Other test like serologic test can cause mononucleosis-type of disease which must be considered in the right clinical setting.

Differential Diagnosis

Prodromal symptoms of virus causing systemic syndromes like measles and chickenpox can also have common cold. Allergic rhinitis is usually characterized by itchy eyes and excessive lacrimation which is related to certain allergies exposure, differentiating from URIs, etc. Sore throat is usually the common sign of acute thyroiditis and gastroesophageal reflux disease, all of which is differentiated from pharyngitis. Drug-induced mucositis causes a non-infectious form of pharyngitis. Wegener's granulomatosis is considered when sinusitis fails to respond to usual therapy.

It is necessary that before diagnosing the upper respiratory tract infection type, you must consider all the symptoms that are affecting you.