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Induced sputum cell counts provide a relatively noninvasive method to evaluate the presence, type and degree of inflammation in asthma. The objective was to examine the total and differential cell counts in induced sputum samples and blood samples of mild and severe stable asthmatics and to compare with those of controls and correlate them with the severity of the disease. Severe stable asthmatics (n=14, 4 males, 10 females, mean age 44-2± 12.2 years), mild stable asthmatics (n= 15, 5 males, 10 females, mean age 36.8±11.4 years) and healthy adults control group (n= 13, 4 males, 9 females, mean age 36.6±11.9 years); a total 42 nonsmoking subjects were enrolled into the study. To obtain a sample of induced sputum, all subjects inhaled hypertonic saline solution (3-5%). Asthmatic patients were pretreated with 200 pg inhaled salbutamol. Adequate induced sputum samples from all subjects were processed within 2 hours.
Results: The mean total cell counts were as xlO6 cells/ml and xlO6 cells/g in controls, mild and severe asthmatics groups, 2.8±3.1xl06 cells/ml and 3.0±3.4xl06 cells/g, 1.9±1.9xl06 cells/ml and 1.58±1.36xl06 cells/g, 3.2+2.6 xlO6 cells/ml and 3.0+2.4 xlO6 cells/g respectively. They did not result in any statistically significant change. The percentages and absolute counts of eosinophils in induced sputum in mild and severe asthmatics
Induced sputum cell counts provide a relatively noninvasive method to evaluate the presence, type and degree of inflammation in asthma. The objective was to examine the total and differential cell counts in induced sputum samples and blood samples of mild and severe stable asthmatics and to compare with those of controls and correlate them with the severity of the disease. Severe stable asthmatics (n=14, 4 males, 10 females, mean age 44-2± 12.2 years), mild stable asthmatics (n= 15, 5 males, 10 females, mean age 36.8±11.4 years) and healthy adults control group (n= 13, 4 males, 9 females, mean age 36.6±11.9 years); a total 42 nonsmoking subjects were enrolled into the study. To obtain a sample of induced sputum, all subjects inhaled hypertonic saline solution (3-5%). Asthmatic patients were pretreated with 200 pg inhaled salbutamol. Adequate induced sputum samples from all subjects were processed within 2 hours.
Results: The mean total cell counts were as xlO6 cells/ml and xlO6 cells/g in controls, mild and severe asthmatics groups, 2.8±3.1xl06 cells/ml and 3.0±3.4xl06 cells/g, 1.9±1.9xl06 cells/ml and 1.58±1.36xl06 cells/g, 3.2+2.6 xlO6 cells/ml and 3.0+2.4 xlO6 cells/g respectively. They did not result in any statistically significant change. The percentages and absolute counts of eosinophils in induced sputum in mild and severe asthmatics asthmatic groups. The percentages of blood eosinophils in mild, severe asthmatics and control groups were 5.6+3.4%, 8.2±3.6%, 2.3± 1.0% respectively. They were similarly higher in mild and severe asthmatics than those of control groups (p<0.0002). Conclusions: This study has identified values for total and differential cell counts in induced sputum of stable asthmatics and healthy adults. Total cell counts (xlO6 cells per ml and per gram) showed no differences among groups and only the portions of eosinophils were significantly higher in mild and severe stable asthmatics than controls (p<0.00001). And, we also showed that patients with asthma in comparison with control subjects had a higher numbers of blood eosinophils (p<0.0002). We conclude that induced sputum cell analysis is a helpful technique to analyse asthmatic airway inflammation, however, we could not correlate cell profile with severity of airway inflammation.