Differential effect of cigarette smoke exposure on exhaled nitric oxide and blood eosinophils in healthy and asthmatic individuals

Background: Tobacco smoking affects both the fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and blood eosinophil (B-Eos) count, two clinically useful biomarkers in respiratory disease that represent local and systemic type-2 inflammation, respectively. Objective: We aimed to study the influence of objectively measured smoke exposure on FeNO and B-Eos in a large population of subjects with and without asthma. Methods: We utilized the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 2007 –2012 and included 10 669 subjects aged 6–80 years: 9869 controls and 800 asthmatics. Controls were defined as having no respiratory disease, no hay fever in the past year, and B-Eos count ≤0.3 × 10 9 l −1 . Asthma was defined as self-reported current asthma and at least one episode of wheezing or an asthma attack in the past year, but no emphysema or chronic bronchitis. Tobacco use was collected via questionnaires and serum cotinine was measured with mass spec...
Source: Journal of Breath Research - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Source Type: research