Exhaled breath condensate biomarkers in critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients
Pneumonia is a significant risk for critically ill, mechanically ventilated (CIMV) patients.
Diagnosis of pneumonia generally requires a combination of clinician-guided diagnoses and clinical
scoring systems. Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) can be safely collected non-invasively from CIMV
patients. Hundreds of biomarkers in EBC are associated with acute disease states, including
pneumonia. We evaluated cytokines in EBC from CIMV patients and hypothesized that these biomarkers
would correlate with disease severity in pneumonia, sepsis, and death. EBC IL-2 levels were
associated with chest radiograph severity scores (odds ratio = 1.68; 95% confidence interval =
1.09 –2.60; P = 0.02). EBC TNF-α levels were also associated with pneumonia (odds ratio = 3.20; 95%
confidence interval = 1.19 –8.65; P = 0.02). The techniques and results from this study may be useful
for all mechanically ventilated patients.
Source: Journal of Breath Research - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Michael D Davis, Brett R Winters, Michael C Madden, Joachim D Pleil, Curtis N Sessler, M Ariel Geer Wallace, Cavin K Ward-Caviness and Alison J Montpetit Source Type: research