Abdul Ghani Mohamed Al Samarai, Amina Hamed Ahmad Al Obaidi.
Association between serum ECP levels and FEV1 in asthma.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;2(2):49-54.

Background: Pathogenesis of asthma has always remained a mystery. A lot of hypotheses have been suggested that propose totally different mechanisms at the biological level. It has been found that activated eosinophils play an important role in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma. Upon activation eosinophils undergo deregulation causing epithelial damage in the airway, desquamation and increased airway hypersensitivity. Objective: To determine the association between serum Eosinophils Cationic Protein (ECP) and FEV1 and the effect of allergen exposure on ECP serum and sputum levels. Patients and Methods: Serum ECP was determined in asthmatic patients by using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and compared to control. For evaluation of the effect of natural allergen exposure on serum and sputum concentration of ECP, 20 patients from asymptomatic asthmatic patients and 20 healthy control subjects were included. At the time of enrollment in the study venous blood and sputum samples were collected for ECP determination. Following season exposure also sputum and venous blood collected to determine ECP. Results: There was highly inverse correlation between serum ECP and FEV1 predicted percent (P<0.0001) asthmatic patients the study indicated that natural allergens exposure (post spring season) of asthmatic patients cause a significant (P<0.05) increase in serum and sputum ECP. T Conclusion: Serum ECP can be used in the diagnosis of asthma and as marker for clinical and functional seriousness of asthma. In addition, it may be used for monitoring of disease severity and response to treatment and disease control. Natural allergen exposure was an important risk factor that may lead to inflammatory reaction and subsequent asthma exacerbation.

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