Does the expired-air carbon monoxide level reflect the severity of inflammation in COPD?
Hanta, I.; Kocabas, A.; Olgunus, O.; Satar, S.; Seydaoglu, G.
Bratislavske Lekarske Listy 108(6): 255-258
2007
ISSN/ISBN: 0006-9248 PMID: 17972536 Document Number: 615031
The aim of this study is to evaluate the expired-air carbon monoxide level which relates to the severity of inflammation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Cross sectional study. Cukurova University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Chest Disease, Out-patient clinic. The characteristics of patients enrolled in this study were following; 20 ex-smokers with stable COPD (mean age: 68.8 +/- 7.2 years, FEV1: 45.6 +/- 16.6% of predicted), 22 current smokers with stable COPD (mean age: 58.7 +/- 8.2 years, FEVI: 57.5 +/- 20.9% of predicted), 20 healthy smokers (mean age: 55.916.0 years, FEVI: 86.7 +/- 14.2% of predicted), and 20 healthy non-smokers (mean age: 60.8 +/- 9.2 years, FEV1: 95.3 +/- 13.5% of predicted). CO level was measured in expired-air. MEAAUREMENT AND RESULTS: The measurement of expired-air CO level was measured by DisCOver, carbon monoxide analyser. It is known that the level of expired-air carbon monoxide in healthy smokers (11.8 +/- 6.4 ppm) and in current smokers with COPD (11.1 +/- 7.4 ppm) is higher than in healthy non-smokers (1.7:0.7 ppm) and in ex-smokers with COPD (2.0 +/- 1.8 ppm) (p = 0.0001). We assumed that the level of expired-air carbon monoxide may not useful in assessing the severity of inflammation in COPD (Tab. 1, Fig. 2, Ref. 23).