SERUM EOSINOPHIL PEROXIDASE (EPO) LEVELS IN ASTHMATIC-PATIENTS

Eosinophil granular proteins are a useful eosinophilic activation mark er in asthmatic patients. In this study, the eosinophil peroxidase (EP O) levels were assessed in different stages of bronchial asthma, in 12 3 patients suffering from asthma, classified as mild (n = 49), moderat e (n = 49), and severe (n = 25), according to the International Consen sus Report on Diagnosis and Treatment of Asthma, as well as in 27 heal thy controls, with the aim of evaluating the importance of this protei n as a severity marker in bronchial asthma, and its possible correlati on with parameters such as anamnesis, respiratory function tests, and peripheral blood eosinophil count, and also with some allergologic dia gnostic tests, both in vivo and in vitro. The geometric mean serum lev el of EPO was 9.3+/-11.3 ng/ml (median+/-SD) in controls, and 28+/-37. 8 ng/ml in the asthmatic patients. Depending on the asthma severity, t he EPO levels were 25+/-30.5; 29+/-37.1, and 41+/-37.3 ng/ml in mild, moderate, and severe asthmatics, respectively, being the significant d ifferences between the group of patients with mild and severe asthma ( P<0.001). The number of eosinophils (eos) in peripheral blood was 157/-20 eos/mm(3) in the controls, 334+/-35 eos/mm(3) in mild asthmatics, 510+/-87 eos/mm(3) in moderate asthmatics, and 658+/-72 eos/mm(3) in severe asthmatics, with significant differences between all the groups (from P<0.05 to P<0.001). Both the serum levels of EPO and the number of eosinophils were greater in patients with active asthma than in pa tients with inactive asthma (P<0.001). Significant negative correlatio ns (P<0.001) were found between serum levels of EPO and FEV1 (r(s) = 0 .30), MEF25-75 (r(s) = -0.33), and MEF50 (r(s) = -0.34), and a good po sitive correlation (r(s) = 0.80, P<0.001) was found between EPO levels and the number of eosinophils in peripheral blood. We also found a si gnificant positive correlation between eosinophil number and clinical score (r(s) = 0.54, P<0.001) and between EPO levels and the mentioned score (r(s) = 0.46, P<0.001).