Serum Eosinophil Derived Neurotoxin Level as a Biomarker for Evaluation of Childhood Asthma

Abstract

Asthma is characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness, inflammation and airflow obstruction. During airway inflammation, there is an increased number of eosinophils in airway, blood and bronchial mucosa. EDN is a serological biomarker that has been proposed and evaluated as the marker of allergic manifestations like asthma. This study was a case control study. It aimed to study the level of serum EDN in asthmatic children and in relation to clinical, functional diagnoses as well as severity. The study was carried out on sixty six asthmatic children. Patients were recruited from Pediatric Chest outpatients' clinic, Children's hospital, faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University. Patients according to clinical scoring and spirometric results (GINA, 2009) were divided into three equal groups : Twenty two asthmatic children with intermittent asthma [mean age 7.34 ± 0.7 years, 12 boys (54.5%) and 10 girls (45.5%)], 22 asthmatic children with mild to moderate asthma [mean age 9.71 ± 1.24 years, 15 boys (68.2%) and 7 girls (31.8%)] and 22 asthmatic children with moderate to severe persistent asthma [mean age 11.93 ± 0.9 years, 14 boys (63.6%) and 8 girls (36.4%)] . Sixty six healthy children (age and sex matched) with no previous history of atopic disorders were included as controls. All candidates were subjected to full clinical evaluation, estimation of absolute eosinophilic count, measurement of total serum IgE and serum EDN level. Allergy skin test and spirometric tests were done for all patients as well.