%0 Journal Article
%T Airway inflammation in steroid-na£¿ve asthmatics: characteristics of induced sputum
%A Lee
%A Simone Van de Sande
%A Pizzichini
%A Marcia Margaret Menezes
%A Marques
%A Leila John
%A Ferreira
%A Samira Cardoso
%A Pizzichini
%A Emilio
%J Jornal de Pneumologia
%D 2003
%I Scientific Electronic Library Online
%R 10.1590/S0102-35862003000400005
%X background: airway inflammation, acknowledged as an important feature of asthma, can be assessed by the examination of induced sputum. objective: to determine the pattern of inflammatory cells in induced sputum from stable steroid-na£¿ve asthmatics, in florian¨®polis, santa catarina. method: the induced sputum from 34 asthmatics using exclusively inhaled bronchodilators on demand was examined. the patients£¿ clinical characteristics were obtained at visit 1, and sputum was induced at visit 2. differential cell count was performed on giemsa-stained cytospins. sputum was considered to be eosinophilic if there were 3 3% eosinophils, and neutrophilic if there were 3 65% neutrophils. results: results are expressed by median and interquartile range. the total cell count was 3.4 (3.7) x 106 cells/ml, and cell viability was 80.0 (16.4) %. the proportion of neutrophils was 14.4 (22.1) %, of eosinophils 6.4 (17.2) %, of macrophages 60.3 (37.5) %, and of lymphocytes 1.1 (1.2) %. eosinophilic sputum was observed in 24 subjects (70.6%); none of them had neutrophilic sputum. there were no significant differences between the eosinophilic and non-eosinophilic groups concerning the measured clinical outcomes, total cell count and proportions of cells in the sputum, except for the proportion of eosinophils (14.4 [19.3] vs 0.4 [1.1], p < 0.001). conclusions: in our environment, steroid-na£¿ve asthmatics present a higher proportion of sputum eosinophils, as compared to the established reference values. the clinical and physiological parameters analyzed were unable to predict the presence of eosinophilic inflammation of the airways.
%K asma
%K inflama£¿£¿o
%K escarro
%K eosin¨®filos
%K neutr¨®filos.
%U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0102-35862003000400005&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en