Value of Peripheral Blood Eosinophil Markers to Predict Severity of Asthma

Abstract

The characteristic feature of asthma included Eosinophilic airway inflammation and airway remodeling but the link between them is unclear (Saglani and Lloyd, 2015). In spite of association between tissue eosinophils and airway remodeling, it has not been recognized whether this is a cause of association or not (Elliot et al., 2015). Controlling eosinophilic inflammation with inhaled corticosteroids reduces exacerbations, but has not yet been shown to prevent the development of fixed airflow obstruction (Saglani and Lloyd, 2015). One reason for the uncertainty is that measurement of eosinophilic airway inflammation using induced sputum is unsuitable for routine clinical practice or large-scale epidemiological studies (Petsky et al., 2012) (Davies and Hancox, 2013). Peripheral blood eosinophil counts have emerged as a promising and easily measured marker of eosinophilic airway inflammation. (Wagener et al., 2015). Therefore, the current study designed to assess the relationship between the level of peripheral blood eosinophil and severity of asthma. Moreover, the correlation between blood eosinophil level and use of corticosteroids was secondarily evaluated.