Objective : To prevent progression to fatal asthma it is essential to assess the severity of asthma and treat adequetely. But there was no objective index to evaluate the severity of airway inflammation in asthmatic patients, So we evaluated that serum ECP concentration is a objective parameter of airway inflammation in patients with acute severe asthmatic attack.
Methods : We measured the parameters of asthamtic severtity(clinical parameter, FEV1, arterial blood gas, peripheral blood eosinophil counts, and serum ECP levels) before and after antiasthmatic treatment in 9patients with acute severe asthmatic attack, And we compared serum ECP concentrations of severe asthmatic patients with those of control patients with mild to moderate severity.
Results : 1) The serum ECP levels in patients with acute asthmatic attacks compared to patients with mild to moderate, asthmatic severity were significantly increased. 2) The serum ECP levels and pheriperal blood eosinophil counts 2hours after antiasthmatic treatment were significantly lower than the value before treatment, but the total scores of clinical parameter, FEV1, and scores of arterial blood gases were not significantly different from the basal values,
Conclusion : It is suggested that the serum ECP level is a objective parameter as a response to antiasthmatic treatment as well as a severity of airway inflammation in patients with acute asthmatic attack.
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