Source: Annual Congress 2002 - Cell biology and genetics of COPD and emphysema
Disease area: Airway diseases

Abstract

Smoking can potentially modify airway inflammation and may interact with the pathogenetic mechanisms of airway diseases.
To define the effect of chronic tobacco use on airway inflammation in asymptomatic subjects and in patients with chronic airway disease suffering from asthma or COPD. 51 current smokers (>15 cigarettes /day) were included in the study. 21 of them had no respiratory symptoms, 13 were suffering from asthma and 17 were COPD patients. A group of 10 non-smoker asthmatic patients was also included in the study as a control group for asthmatic population. None of the patients was treated with inhaled or systemic steroids 4 weeks before the study and all were in stable conditions. Airway inflammation was assessed using induced sputum analysis and detection of exhaled NO and CO.
Results: The results are shown in table 1.
Conclusions: Eosinophilic inflammation is a predominant feature in asthmatic patients regardless smoking habit. Chronic tobacco use induces the neutrophilic airway inflammation and increases levels of IL-8 in sputum only in COPD patients. Exhaled NO is a useful non-invasive marker of airway inflammation in asthma, which could be helpful in the differential diagnosis between asthma and COPD, even among smoker patients.
*p<0.05 compared with groups 1,2 **p<0.05 compared with groups 1,3,4

	Eosinophils %	Neutrophils %	IL-8	eNO	CO
Smokers	x±]SE	x±]SE	x±]SE	x±]SE	x±]SE
Asymptomatic	0.77±]0.3	37.4±]5.2	31.2±]0.0	5.1±]0.5	18.6±]1.3
COPD	2.5±]1.4	57.1±]7.1**	506.4±]177.5**	4.6±]0.2	18.2±]1.7
Asthma	6.1±]1.5*	33.2±]7.6	31.2±]0.0	11.3±]2.5*	19.2±]1.8
Non-Smoker asthmatics	8.4±]4.9*	27.2±]10.3		14.7±]3.8*	4.5±]0.7*

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Citations should be made in the following way:
C. Gratziou, N. Rovina, Z. Athanassa, N. Kolintza, D. Chiotis, C. Roussos (Greece). Smoking and airway inflammation in asymptomatic subjects and in patients with chronic airway disease. Eur Respir J 2002; 20: Suppl. 38, 647

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