Sputum eosinophil counts in a large population of mild-to-moderate asthmatics: distribution, relationship with methacholine bronchial responsiveness and influence of a regular treatment with low doses of inhaled corticosteroids

Source: Annual Congress 2001 - Molecular and cellular pathology of asthma

Session: Molecular and cellular pathology of asthma
Session type: Poster Discussion
Number: 3564

Disease area: Airway diseases

Abstract

Airway eosinophilia is a feature of asthma thought to play a functional role in the disease. However data on the proportion of asthmatics exhibiting raised airway eosinophilia are still lacking.
We have assessed the sputum eosinophil count and its relationship with methacholine bronchial responsiveness in 118 consecutive mild to moderate steroid naive asthmatics recruited from our outpatient clinic and compared the results with those found in 44 asthmatics treated with low to moderate doses of inhaled steroids (200-800 μg/d) and 44 healthy non atopic subjects.
Steroid naive asthmatics differentiated from healthy subjects (p<0.001) and steroid treated asthmatics (p<0.05) by an increased sputum eosinophil counts expressed both as a percentage or as absolute values. The mean±]SD and median (range) of the percentage of sputum eosinophils were 10.9±]13.6% and 4.8%(0-75) in steroid naive asthmatics, 5.8±]10% and 1.8%(0-47.5) in steroid treated patients and 0.3±]0.6% and 0%(0-2.3)in healthy subjects respectively. Based on the values of our healthy group, 82% of steroid naive asthmatics had abnormally raised sputum eosinophil count (>1.5%) while this proportion reached 64% in steroid treated patients. In steroid naive patients the sputum eosinophil count significantly contributed to methacholine bronchial hyperresponsiveness accounting for 15% of the variation in PC20M while the relationship was longer significant in steroid treated patients.
We conclude that the large majority of mild to moderate asthmatics had increased sputum eosinophilia that plays a limited role in determining the degree of methacholine airway hyperresponsiveness which is only evident in steroid naive patients.

Rating:

You must login to grade this presentation.

Share or cite this content

Citations should be made in the following way:
R. E. Louis, P. Blaise, J. Sele, M. Henket, D. Cataldo, J. Bettiol, P. Bartsch (Liege, Belgium). Sputum eosinophil counts in a large population of mild-to-moderate asthmatics: distribution, relationship with methacholine bronchial responsiveness and influence of a regular treatment with low doses of inhaled corticosteroids. Eur Respir J 2001; 16: Suppl. 31, 3564

You must login to share this Presentation/Article on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or by email.

Member's Comments

No comment yet.

You must Login to comment this presentation.

Related content which might interest you:

• Late Breaking Abstract - Implications of treatable traits and treatment choices on exacerbation risk in moderate-severe asthma
• Observational cohort study of pulmonary exacerbations in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
• Management of Severe Asthma in Pediatric Patients by an Interdisciplinary Team in a Public Hospital Setting.