Case study-based time-course analysis of symptoms of respiratory syncytial virus infections followed by acute sinusitis in otherwise-healthy adults

Reports on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections are abundant in pediatric and geriatric populations but not many in healthy adults, and particularly, those which demonstrated the illness throughout its time course are rare. We report two otherwise-healthy adult cases, showing a number of evidence essential for confirmation of exclusive infections with RSV, and document their clinical features from the onset of the disease to recovery, including secondary sinusitis with magnetic resonance (MR) and computed tomography (CT) images. The infection was proven by isolating RSV belonging to subgroup B and by observing elevated anti-RSV antibody titer in the paired sera. Possible contribution of other pathogens including almost all respiratory viruses and representative bacteria, was excluded by negative results in multiplex PCR examination. In the first case, illness initiated with pharyngeal pain, followed by symptoms of sneezing, severe rhinorrhea and coughing, which peaked at approximately 5–7 days and persisted for 12 days. The patient experienced a slight chill, but the body temperature did not exceed 37 ℃ during illness. The patient showed no significant finding but only a slight increase in serum C-reactive protein level in the routine clinical laboratory examinations. On the 9th day of illness, a dull headache started persisting for at least a week after which it gradually waned. Sinusitis was found by chance on MR images of maxillary sinus 8 days after the headache started, and the finding disappeared on CT images taken after 6 months. In the second case, the symptoms included severe rhinorrhea and dull facial pain around the upper nose; the pain also occurred on the 9th day of illness and the symptom was clinically diagnosed to be acute sinusitis during a visit to a physician.