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Exhaled nitric oxide (NO) may be a marker of disease activity in a variety of lung diseases.
Exhaled NO has been found to be high in patients with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease, bronchiectasis and interstitial lung diseases. The aim of this study was to examine the
levels of exhaled NO in stable bronchiectasis patients and compare to control subjects, and
investigate whether the concentration of exhaled NO is related to the extent of disease as defined
by HRCT(high resolution computed tomography), lung function tests and blood oxygen saturation.
Twenty patients with presenting stable bronchiectasis in the Ataturk Chest Disease and Chest
Surgery Center between January 2000 and April 2001 were included in this study. Exclusion
criteria were history of atopy or allergy, history of asthma or other pulmonary and systemic
disease, treatment with oral or inhaled glucocorticoids. The levels of exhaled NO was measured
using a chemiluminescence NO analyser. The concentration of NO in ambient air was recorded
before each test. The patients’ exhaled NO levels were compared with those of ten healthy control
subjects. There was a significant correlation between exhaled NO levels (eNO) and ambient NO
(aNO) levels in the patients and control group (patients eNO:24,7±18,9ppb aNO:36,1±42,4ppb
p=0,001 r=0,70; control group eNO:88,9±85,8ppb aNO:148,8±131,5ppb p<0,0001 r=0,97). The
exhaled NO levels in the patients were significantly lower (p<0.03) than those of the control group.
This result was explained that ambient NO levels in the patients were significantly lower (p<0.01)
than control group . On the other hand, there was no statistically significant correlation between
HRCT score, FEV1
, oxygen saturation levels and eNO levels in the patients (p>0.05).
In summary, the ambient NO influenced the exhaled NO levels, and we believe that exhaled NO
levels did not reflect pulmonary NO production in this study. Therefore, interpretation about the
levels of exhaled NO in bronchiectasis can not be made clearly with the present results. This study
suggests that the standardization of techniques for measurement exhaled NO is very important
Other ID | JA35JH93AT |
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Journal Section | Research Article |
Authors | |
Publication Date | October 1, 2002 |
Published in Issue | Year 2002 Volume: 16 Issue: 2 |