Whole blood chemiluminescence as a systemic inflammatory parameter in asthma.

Abstract

Blood phagocytes from patients with asthma not treated with antiinflammatory drugs have an increased capacity to produce reactive oxygen metabolites. We studied the phenomenon in a group of patients with asthma receiving inhaled steroids with whole blood chemiluminescence (CL), a simple reactive oxygen metabolite assay suitable for routine use. There was no difference in CL values between patients with stable asthma and no current obstruction (n = 19; mean CL +/- SD = 26.01 +/- 6.51 mV x min) and healthy control subjects (n = 20; mean CL +/- SD = 27.37 +/- 6.15 mV x min), whereas the patients with asthma and current obstruction (n = 27) had significantly higher CL responses (mean CL +/- SD = 41.10 +/- 14.79 mV x min) than both the patients with nonobstructive asthma and the healthy control subjects (p < 0.0005). There was a negative correlation between whole blood CL and the forced expiratory volume in 1 second of the patients with asthma (Spearman's r = -0.47). When the CL values were corrected for the number of phagocytes present in the reactions, the patients with nonobstructive asthma had significantly lower values than the healthy control subjects (p < 0.05). We suggest that the CL values of the patients with nonobstructive asthma reflect the result of effective antiinflammatory treatment and that whole blood CL may be useful as a systemic parameter in the follow-up of the inflammatory process in asthma.