Monitoring of Inflammatory Markers in Exhaled Breath Condensate in patients with Asthma and Development of Evaluating System of Asthma Severity

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The evaluation of airway inflammation is important for the diagnosis and treatment of asthma. The exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is a less invasive method compared with bronchoalveolar lavage or bronchial biopsy. Measurement of mediators in EBC could be a useful method for monitoring airway inflammation in asthma. The aims of this study are to establish the EBC collection method and to find measurable biomarkers reflecting asthmatic airway inflammation and the relationship between these biomarkers and asthmatic severity and lung function. Fifty-eight non-smoking healthy subjects, 7 asymptomatic smokers, 9 common cold subjects and 55 asthmatics with disease severity ranging from mild intermittent to severe persistent were enrolled. We measured the levels of pH, CRP, albumin, Eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), H_2O_2, and nitrite/nitrate in EBC. The levels of CRP, H_2O_2, nitrite/nitrate of the asthma group were significantly higher than in the control group. In asthmatic severity, the levels of pH, CRP, ECP, H_2O_2 and nitrate in the mild persistent group were significantly higher than the other groups with severity. In addition, the H_2O_2 level in EBC significantly correlated with that of nitrite/nitrate. FEV1 and PEFR showed a significant negative correlation with the levels of ECO, H_2O_2 and nitrite/nitrate. EBC collection is noninvasive and useful to evaluate airway inflammation by measuring inflammatory markers in the management of asthma.